Paths Not Taken
by era909
Summary: It doesn't matter which path your life takes, you can never escape your destiny. WIP Crossover with BtVS.
1. Prologue

_**Title:**_ Paths Not Taken

_Author:_ Era

_Contact:_ era@wotmania.com

_Rating:_ PG-13. The F-word will be used a few times later in the story.

_Summary:_ It doesn't matter which path your life takes, you can never escape your destiny.

_Thanks to:_ Infie, Maia and Merlin The Enchanter. Without you this wouldn't be what it is.

_Distribution:_ If you for some reason want it, feel free to take it. All I ask of you is that you keep the story unchanged and include all notes. Also, please let me know where it ends up so I can check any other stories you might have there.

_Feedback:_ Yes please. It's the only way for me to improve. 

_Disclaimer:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the characters associated with the show belongs to Joss and Mutant Enemy. Dark Angel and the characters associated with the show belongs to Cameron, Eglee and Fox.

_Warnings / Spoilers:_ All of Dark Angel is fair game though it breaks off shortly before the last episode of season 2. For BtVS everything up until and including the season 3 finale is fair game.

If you're a big fan of Logan you might want to stay clear of this story. It'll eventually be M/A (as in Max/Alec) and apart from in the prologue they're the only characters from DA I'll use.

_Authors Notes:_ The idea for this story had been spinning around in my head for quite a long time before I finally got around to start writing it. This is the prologue of a story that I expect will be quite long. I'm not the fastest author out there so don't expect to see new chapters every other day or even week, more like maybe once a month. School takes a lot of my time and besides that my muse works in mysterious ways - and often not at all.

English is my second language and none of my betas should be blamed for any misstakes you may find. Without them this wouldn't be readable at all so all praise to them.

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**_Prologue._**

_January 6, Year 1 AD. Somewhere in Europe._

The night air was crisp and cold as the man stepped out from the relative shelter of his tent. The small fire wasn't enough to raise the temperature more than a few degrees but it kept some of the chill away, and even the illusion of warmth was better than no warmth at all. The snow had been falling steadily for the past three days and a 40 centimeters thick layer of frozen snow covered the landscape. Inside the huge camp the guards on patrol, and the legionaries moving around as they performed their duties, had trampled the snow down and created narrow paths around the tents. They had been stuck at the same place for almost a week now and the weather showed no signs of easing up.

Marcus drew a deep breath of the cold air, taking in the various smells of the camp. The air was still fairly fresh and pleasant, but he knew that if they were forced to stay longer at this place the smell from the latrines and the garbage dump would become more than a little annoying. Adjusting his thick warm coat and pulling it closer around himself, he started walking out of the camp. He nodded to a few of his friends as he passed them and saluted one of the officers.

His contubernia camped in the eastern part of the camp, not at the very edge but fairly close to the surrounding forest. The large clearing where they had set camp was ideal for the purpose. A small river ran straight through the camp and, after having spent a few hours the first day cutting through the ice, they had all the fresh water they needed. Strategically placed guards around the clearing made sure that no one could get close to the camp without being noticed. After all, the barbarians they were sent after were considered dangerous. They lacked the discipline and the training of the Roman Legions, but they made up for their shortcomings with brute force and a fearlessness that was downright scary. Marcus had fought them before on several occasions. Each encounter had been bloody and more than one time he'd survived more because of luck than skill. But survived he had.

At age 31 he'd been in the Legions for slightly more than 15 years, ever since he lied about his age to get to join the Legion while he still was only 16 years old. Life as a legionnaire was all he ever wanted. Having grown up on the streets of a small town about a day's travel south of Rome he'd never really had any family. He never knew his father and his mother had died when he was still a child. Marcus had grown up on the streets, learning early how to fight to protect himself and make his own living. As a thief he'd been successful, but it was as a fighter he'd made a name for himself. The other homeless kids soon learned not to mess with him if they knew what was good for them. When the recruiters from the Legions came to the town to enlist more legionnaires for the campaigns against the barbarians he'd been one of the first in line to sign up. The recruiters had been a little vary at first but his harsh childhood had made him look older than he was, and the hard glint in his eyes hinted that he knew how to handle himself in a fight. Marcus had left the town the very same day with about a dozen other new recruits and had never returned.

The Legion had been everything he ever wanted. It gave him a purpose, provided him with food and shelter and even a small salary. It gave him friends, and even more. It gave him a family. Over the years he'd got to know several of the men better than he'd ever known any of his family. He was respected and liked, and more than once he'd been suggested for promotion. The first time he'd accepted but since then he'd always declined, much to the irritation of some other officers. Marcus enjoyed being a Centurion, a real legionnaire. One of the ones who fought in the front lines with his comrades and actually saw the action close up. He led his century, 80 battle hardened men who'd fought side by side for years, and that was exactly how much responsibility he wanted. In a group this small he knew everyone by name and knew their personalities.

As he left the small area where his contubernia camped he increased his pace, until he reached the outskirts of the camp. Trampled paths into the forest showed the directions the sentries had walked when they left the camp to take up their guard duties. Marcus ignored the paths and trudged through still untouched snow to the east. It was one of his oldest habits. To take some time of his own just after the darkness fell and hike trough the forests surrounding their current camp. He enjoyed the quiet and the beauty of the nature. It was of course more pleasant during the summer or the spring, but a beautiful winter night could be just as relaxing and enjoyable. He never used to go more than a few thousand steps from the camp, no matter how secure the surrounding area supposedly was. Armed with his short sword he could defend himself better than most men could, but it was still no reason to be incautious.

He passed one of the inner sentries and nodded to the man as he continued deeper into the forest. The darkness of the forest felt oddly comforting and the almost complete absence of sounds, save for his own footfall, calmed him. As he walked further and further away from the camp he became subconsciously aware that he'd continued deeper into the forest than he'd ever intended. At the same time he couldn't make himself stop; something made him continue. It was almost pulling him deeper into the darkness, and the further he walked, the more distant the uneasy feeling became. It felt right to be here, to walk this path. Somehow he knew he had to do it, but not why.

*****

In the beautifully decorated lounge, somewhere no human had ever set foot, the sounds of laughter and music was almost deafening. The party had been going on for several hours already and everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. A party at this place was something so rare that no one could remember the last time it had happened. Not that anyone thought about that now. All such thoughts - all thoughts at all except the ones concerning the party - had ceased long time ago.

The party had been the idea of one of the newer members of the group. One who'd only been granted the power a few hundred years earlier. The fact that the individual was so new to the society was probably the reason the party had happened. The older members were so caught up in tradition and the need to follow the old ways that the mere thought of a party never had crossed their mind. Several had been sceptical at first and a few had even voted against the idea. Thankfully all the sceptics had changed their opinion after the party had started and at the moment there wasn't a single individual in the room who wanted the party to end.

Everyone knew that this was a one-time deal. Something like this wouldn't happen again in the foreseeable future, but tonight they celebrated. It wasn't every day such an important part of the Creator's big plan was completed. The first steps in the birth of an entire new religion had been completed earlier that day and everything had worked exactly as planned. Christianity would spread over the world and become one of the most important religions in this reality. The Slayer would get a new holy symbol to use in the fight against darkness, one that was easy to grip and hold on to while in combat. The shape of the cross had caused some of the older to raise their eyebrows but the fact that it would be helpful for the Slayer had been enough to silence the opposition.

One thing was for sure. The celebration that took place proved without a doubt that The Powers That Be could throw one mean party if they wanted to.

Nothing important was on the agenda for the evening and some of the younger members had been trusted to take care of the few things that were supposed to happen. While a whole lot of prophecies would be made available for the humans thanks to the birth of a new religion, there was nothing going on at the moment. Something that one particular youngling did his best to ignore. The evening was so boring that he almost fell asleep before he'd carried out his duties. Rubbing his eyes, he carefully studied the current situation in the world he supervised. The birth of the various different religions was the only thing that was the same in all the different realities. While several developed almost frighteningly alike, there were several large differences between most of the worlds.

The individual sighed and wished, not for the first time, that he'd been given one of the more exciting realities to monitor. Nothing happened in this one, nothing at all. There were the usual deaths and births and a small war here and there, but nothing to capture his attention. The forces of evil had nothing on the agenda and the Slayer was sleeping peacefully with her watcher somewhere in what would later be called Belgium. No matter how wrong he felt it was for the watcher to use the Slayer like that, it wasn't his responsibility to do anything about it. Bored with the lack of activity, he randomly picked a spot to watch just to keep himself awake. Falling asleep while on watch was not something taken lightly.

The area he overlooked was a few square miles of forests and fields somewhere on the European continent. A military camp was at the western part of the area and a small village at the north-eastern corner. Needing something... anything, to do, he searched for life forms in the area and found several. Two in particular drew his attention. One was a soldier from the camp, walking alone in the forests a short distance from the camp itself. The other one wasn't so much a life form as a un-life-form. Taking a swig from his drink, he looked up the planned fates for the two beings and shook his head slightly. The soldier was supposed to die in combat in the morning, without killing a single enemy and not even saving any of his men as a last action. The vampire had a somewhat more interesting fate, he noticed. Glancing back to the scene playing out before his eyes, he saw the soldier change direction slightly to keep within safe distance from the camp. The vampire prowled through the snow in a fast pace, heading north toward the village. He took a quick look around, and seeing no one he made a slight change in the fates and used a fraction of his power to make it happen. After all, why should the elders have all the fun, partying and all, while he was here bored. What fun was it to be one of the protectors of all that is good if you couldn't use any of that intoxicating power to spice things up every now and then? A slight change like this couldn't really matter in the long run, could it? When he got no answer from either the empty room or the almost empty bottle, he pushed the thought aside and sat down to watch the scene below unfold.

*****

Thoril moved swiftly through the forest, not even bothered by the snow that would have slowed down anyone else. He'd been travelling east for a few days, covering more land than a human on a horse could have done in the same time. He wasn't really in a hurry, but he needed to find ways to burn off some energy. The Slayer he'd bumped into a few weeks earlier was long since gone and no longer a threat to him. Silently he cursed the black haired girl. She'd killed several of his children and even managed to injure Thoril himself. The injury was minor and had healed in a few hours, but the loss of his children was much worse. He'd been keeping an eye out for new potential children while he'd been travelling, but he'd had no luck yet. None of the hundreds of humans he'd killed in rage, leaving a bloody swath over the continent, had been what he'd been looking for.

At a little more than 530 years old, he was long since over the stage where he just wanted to sire more of his kind. No, Thoril was looking for the special ones, the ones who already knew how to fight and could stand on their own. It didn't hurt if they were ruthless and used to killing too. That thought brought a smile to his face and his blue eyes glittered under the blonde hair that fell down and covered half his face. Finding humans who were used to killing was the easiest part these days. The other requirements were harder to come by. Had he lowered his standards a little he could have had over a dozen followers by now, but once you started slipping you continued to do so. No, he thought. It was better to be patient and build up his new family over the years to come. After all, time was irrelevant when you were immortal.

It had been several years since he last was in these parts of the world but if he remembered correctly there should be a village not far north of him. Fresh food and shelter for the day to come. The only thing that kept him from returning to his native lands to the north was the larger population in this land. It was easier to find villages to feed on and seek cover from the sun in.

With a mighty jump he cleared a fallen tree, a birch from the look of it, and continued on his way. Winter was not his favourite season, even though the days were shorter and the nights were longer. No, spring and autumn was when life was as best. More people were travelling on the roads or working on the fields and not all of them restricted their activities to the daytime. It was easy to find someone to feed off and you didn't have to bother to tear away a dozen layers of clothing first. He spat in the snow; the taste of cloth was among the worst he knew. The summer was a sweet time as well, and more enjoyable in the southern parts of the world he knew. In his native land the sun never set during winter, which made it impossible for a vampire to survive there during that time of the year. Still, the days were too long to be perfect even in the south and so he preferred spring and autumn to summer.

Spring was several months away and the winter still held the lands in a firm grip. He hoped to have at least a couple of children when the spring came and people left their homes. It would be much easier to find new potentials if he didn't have to do it alone.

A sudden strange feeling brought him out of is thoughts. Stopping in the snow, he stood completely still and concentrated his sensitive vampiric ears on his surroundings. He stood listening for a few minutes but the forest was ghostly silent. In the summer you could always hear animals, whether it be birds or mammals; the sounds of them still were there. In the winter however, the forests were quiet.

Hearing nothing, he took off again, not even noticing the slight change in direction he'd made. Instead of going northeast toward the village, he was moving more toward dead east. It took him a few minutes to notice but when he did it barely registered. There was something in this direction he needed to see, something he had to find. Thoril had no idea what it was or why it was so important, he only knew it was. Gradually he picked up his pace and was soon running at full speed, waving around the trees and jumping over snow-covered bushes and stones. To any observer it would have looked completely impossible. Full speed for a vampire was a lot faster than any human could ever hope to run, and the darkness of the forest meant nothing to the creature of the night. The darkness was his ally and the forests were his home.

Slowing down, he jogged the last few steps to the top of the mound and looked down the slope on the other side. A man, dressed in clothes he knew all too well, was trudging through the snow toward the mound. The clothes identified him as a Roman Legionnaire, something Thoril had hoped not to meet in a long time. The Legions were the main reason he kept away from the south these days. They were too well organized and the Legions actually posed a threat to his kind. He'd lost more than one child to the sword-wielding warriors.

Something with this man was different though. He felt drawn to the man, almost to the point that it bothered him. Studying the man closer he could sense the aura of power surrounding him. The legionnaire stumbled slightly on something hidden below the snow but quickly caught his balance and continued toward the mound. The human was moving mechanically, almost like he was in trance, and he was moving right toward Thoril.

Thoughts of a late-night snack were running through his head when something within him changed. Suddenly he knew what was going to happen, what he had to do. Letting out a slightly mad laugh he stepped out from around the tree he was hiding behind just as the human stopped in front of him. The two of them stood silently for a while, studying each other, before Thoril broke the silence.

"Welcome," he said in a language he hoped the man would understand. "I am Thoril."

The man bowed his head slightly before he responded.

"Thank you, Master. I am Marcus." The man pulled of his thick scarf and tilted his head to the left, baring his throat for the vampire.

No more words were exchanged and neither of the two individuals knew why they were acting like they did, only that it felt right.

Thoril sank his fangs into the throat of the man, tearing the veins open. The coppery taste of the blood filled him and the demon within him roared as he drank. The man's blood was rich and powerful, among the best he'd found in his many years. When he could hear the man's heartbeat slow down and flutter he quickly tore his own wrist open with his fangs.

*****

Marcus could feel the life leave him. Everything around seemed to fade away into the dark forest surrounding him. The slurping sounds from the drinking monster got fainter and fainter until they finally stopped. As consciousness was about to leave him he felt a strange new sensation. Something wet and coppery was filling his mouth, making it impossible to breath anymore. Reflexively he swallowed the liquid, not even knowing what it was. Desperately he gulped the liquid down, trying to clear the way for the much-needed air. But no matter how desperately he tried to hang on to life, it wasn't long before everything went black.

*****

Thoril stumbled slightly as the man's body went limp and dropped unceremoniously to the ground. He'd never given this much of his own blood when he'd created a child before. It would be very interesting to see what the results would be. But, all in good time. Now he had to continue on his way north to the village, this time with a burden to carry.

The sunrise wouldn't wait for Marcus to wake up and he needed to find the first meal for his new son. The hunger would be almost uncontrollable when he woke and the sooner he could feed the better. Besides, where you found buildings you found food. And right now they were in need of both.

He slung the limp, rapidly cooling body over his shoulders and took off at a run again. Carrying the large, limp form barely slowed him down and he set a fast pace.

*****

The first thing he felt when he woke up was an immense hunger, unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. He'd gone for days without any food and barely any water on his long campaigns with the Legion. This was worse, much, much worse. His eyes snapped open and a part of his mind reacted in shock to the clarity of the world in front of him. Subconsciously he knew it was still dark, but he could see almost as well as if it had been noon.

All other thoughts suddenly disappeared as he was assaulted by another sensation of extreme hunger. Without noticing, he growled low in his throat as his head snapped around, searching the room for anything to still the hunger.

"Here, my son," a voice said from somewhere behind him. "Feed now and then listen to me."

A young girl, no more than eight or ten years, dressed in dirty but whole clothes stumbled toward him. Reflexively he caught the girl with one hand and bent her head to the side, exposing her neck. As he sank his fangs into the warm flesh his eyes found the man standing behind her at the rear wall of the room. He knew instinctively who it was, the feeling was too strong to ignore or misinterpret. The man was his Master, his Sire.

With a discipline born from years in the Legion he bowed his head slightly before he spoke. "Thank you, Master."

When he'd drained the girl and stilled the worst of his hunger he dropped the limp body to the ground. He looked inquiring at his Master as he straightened and took a step away from the dead girl.

"Come, my son," Thoril said with a deep voice. Marcus could hear the barely contained excitement and he knew why it was there, he felt it too. "It's time to hunt," Thoril continued, and opened the door.

When dawn came about an hour later the screams had died out and faded away. What only a day earlier had been a small village with a few hundred inhabitants was now devoid of all life. The houses where the few, large, families had been asleep were painted red with blood and turned into slaughterhouses. No one had been spared and no one had been turned. The farmers, foresters and their families had neither the skill nor the ruthlessness to become a child of Thoril. It was a poor excuse for the dead but at least none of them would rise again, only to kill.

*****

When the Roman Legion's were assaulted in their camp by several thousand barbarians at the break of daylight, one of the most important Centurions was missing. The arrow which would have tore his throat open sailed harmlessly through the air and imbedded itself in a cooking-utensil which sat above a small fire. The outcome of the small battle was a resounding victory for the Romans, as it was supposed to be. The Powers That Be went over the results of the battle and were pleased to see that everyone who was supposed to die was, indeed, dead. No one noticed that for one of the unlucky legionnaires life had been turned into un-life. The soul was released and that meant the man was dead. No further investigation took place.

As the years passed the young man responsible for the change forgot all about it. Everything of importance in the Powers' plan happened as it was supposed to, so there was no reason to be alarmed.

*****

_Venice, Italy, 1352 AD._

Marcus cursed silently as they moved through the deserted streets. Of all the stupid ideas. They had to come to this city of death. The disease, the Plague, which killed the humans had the city in a firm grip. The stench of death and decay was so strong it made him feel sick, something he hadn't felt in centuries. He'd tried to talk Thoril out of it but to no avail. His Master wouldn't listen to reason this time.

The Slayer was in the city and she was alone. All they'd heard said that the Watcher had died from the Plague a week earlier and the Slayer was waiting for his replacement to arrive. Marcus snorted. Like any sane person would travel to this forsaken city now. Death and destruction didn't bother him the slightest. It hadn't before he was turned and it certainly didn't now. However, you couldn't eat the dead. There was no beating heart pumping the life-giving blood through the veins.There was nothing living except the large number of rats moving on the streets. Bodies of dead humans were scattered everywhere, as the order of the city had broken down completely. In the early stages of the Plague the doctors had fought it with the help of volunteers. Dead bodies had been removed as soon as they were found and sick people had been put in quarantine to limit the plague's spread. As more and more people died, the chaos took over, and nowadays the few living humans only fended for themselves. The vampires were immune to the Plague of course, but most of their kind had left the worst affected areas in their search for prey. They still couldn't enter a private home without invitation and since almost no one walked outside anymore, at least not at night, it was difficult to feed.

Thoril knew where the Slayer was staying and had decided to kill her as soon as he could. Marcus wasn't sure why the Slayer had such an effect on Thoril, but there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, if all he'd heard about the Slayer was true, the blood of a Slayer was something unique. Far more powerful and attractive than normal blood. He'd never fought or encountered a Slayer himself but he knew Thoril had met one not long before Marcus was sired.

The group rounded a street corner and Marcus found himself looking straight at the inn where the Slayer was staying. The seven vampires were all old, the youngest of them well over a hundred and fifty years, and knew how to handle themselves in a fight. Thoril had refused to bring his younger children, fearing that he would lose them to the Slayer before they could grow older and stronger. Still, seven powerful vampires should be more than enough to handle one single, lonely girl.

Seven vampires would probably have been enough, if the Slayer hadn't been prepared for a fight.

*****

Gitara Maldini had been the Slayer for a little more than one year. She'd fought and killed a vast number of vampires and demons in that year and she'd come to take her duties extremely seriously. Her watcher was dead, killed by the Plague, and that left her alone in the world. She didn't know what had happened to her parents or her younger brother, but the chance that they'd survived the Plague was slim to none.

Gitara was preparing for her nightly patrol. No matter how deserted the streets were there was always evil out there, and it was her job to keep the streets safe. Or as safe as they could possibly be when the Plague killed thousands every day. Not for the first time she felt herself almost giving up hope. The common man had no idea what had caused the Plague or why God was punishing them with something like this. Gitara knew the truth. God had nothing to do with it.

One of her predecessors had failed to locate a Belgari demon before it could infect a human. The Slayer had killed the demon a few days too late. The chain reaction had already started. The Plague spread over the world and there was little they could do to stop it. Eventually the humans would develop an immunity to the virus and the Plague would die out, but not before too many had been lost to it. Gitara was the Slayer, and thus immune to any virus the Belgari could release. She wouldn't have to worry about dying from the Plague. Instead she had only to watch how everyone around her lost the fight and their lives. She couldn't have done anything about it, since it happened several years before she was called, but she still felt responsible for it. She was the Slayer and she couldn't save the world from a demonic threat.

She had just finished arming herself with stakes and crosses when her Slayer senses picked up the approaching vampires. The feeling was familiar, but this time it was much stronger than she was used to. Not in numbers, she'd fought more than ten vampires a few times before, but each vampire gave a much stronger impression. Her watcher had taught her how to use her gift and she knew what it meant. These vampires were old and powerful, and there were seven of them.

She readied herself and took up a defensive position to one side of the door, holding a stake in each hand.

*****

Thoril ordered one of his children to kick the door open and charge in. He hung back in the rear of the group to watch the events unfold.

Marcus watched as Miklos, a 230 years old vampire from somewhere in Greece, kicked the door open and advanced through the opening, only to be met by a stake to the heart before he could react. A slim, rather short, girl with black hair and brown eyes stepped out from behind the wall and glared at the six remaining vampires. It was the first time Marcus had met a Slayer and her presence almost overwhelmed him. He could feel the power literally radiating from her small frame.

Two more vampires lunged through the door, trying to overpower the Slayer. One was staked immediately, but the other managed to hit the girl with a blow that sent her stumbling back into the room. It was all the advantage they needed and the remaining vampires quickly followed him into the room.

*****

Gitara staked the first vampire before he even knew she was there. They probably hadn't expected her to be prepared and ready for them when they entered and she fully used her advantage. There was no way she'd get away from this alive. The vampires were too old and powerful for her to fight off alone and armed with only stakes. She vowed to take as many of them as she could with her before she died.

When another two charged at her she quickly ducked under the first punch, ramming her stake into the heart of the creature. She wasn't fast enough to dodge the second vampire though, and it hit her with a powerful blow that forced her back from the doorway she'd been defending.

The vampires spread out through the room and two of them took positions at the door, guarding it to make sure she couldn't escape. She snorted. Like that was ever going to happen. She moved to attack another of the undead bloodsuckers when a final vampire stepped through the door. Gitara halted mid-step as the newcomer appeared. There was no doubt that this was the leader of the pack. He felt much stronger than the others, her slayer senses went wild at the sight of him. Only one of the other vampires came even close to being as old and powerful as this one.

"Greetings, Slayer," the ancient vampire said. "I am Thoril."

Gitara's hope sunk even further. Her watcher had told her about the most powerful vampires out there, and Thoril was near the top of that list. She remembered her watcher saying he was over 1500 years old, maybe even older. Pushing down her fear, she slipped into an attack stance, the adrenaline pumping through her body. She wouldn't go down without a fight and Thoril was up for a nasty surprise if he thought she'd be easy to beat.

"I have been looking for one of your kind for a long time now, Slayer." The vampire's voice was deep and grating, the age of the creature almost audible when he spoke.

Gitara snorted. "So desperate to meet your final death?" she snapped. She couldn't even come up with any good one-liners at the moment but she'd be damned if she let the vamp get away too easy.

Thoril laughed, a deep rumbling sound that filled the room. "I have no intention to die, Slayer. You, however, will most certainly die before the night is over."

The vampire stepped forward from the doorway and into the small open area of the room. "It's been over fifteen hundred years since I last tasted the blood of a Slayer. But as they say, all things comes to those who wait."

"Blah, blah, blah. Lots of talk and no action. Just like always with your kind," Gitara taunted, trying everything she could to get the vampire off balance. Anything that would give her an advantage in the upcoming fight. She was already weaker than she used to be. There wasn't enough food to feed a single human anymore, much less a Slayer.

Thoril's eyes flashed gold-red as he vamped out and snarled at her. "Tonight we'll feast on the blood of a Slayer."

Gitara was ready when he finally attacked and dodged his first punch, only to be hit by a powerful kick to the chest. Her small frame was lifted off the ground and sent crashing into the wall, slumping down and landing on the dirty bed she'd been sleeping on for the past week. Shaking her head to clear it from the fog, she rolled once and got to her feet to meet the next attack. It only took her a moment to realise that this vampire was unlike any she'd ever faced before. Not only was he considerably stronger, but also even faster than she was.

She changed her fighting style to a purely defensive one and did her best to hold back the beast. A part of her mind noticed that the other vampires weren't cheering and yelling like their kind often did when one of them fought. These vamps were just standing there watching, waiting. They were obviously disciplined and followed their master's command.

She dodged another haymaker and slipped under the arm of the momentarily unbalanced vampire. Utilizing all her Slayer speed she managed to land a couple of blows to his chest before he could react and planted a knee in her solar plexus. The air whooshed from her lungs and her body felt like it was on fire as she glided over the rough surface of the floor. Her movement didn't stop until she hit the wall at the other end of the room, and this time she didn't have time to get up before the vampire was on her again. Several powerful punches hit her chest and torso and she could hear, just as well as feel, how her ribs broke under the onslaught.

Thoril picked her up and threw her across the room again and she landed with a thud. Gitara coughed as she painfully tried to draw air into her lungs. She didn't know much about healing, it had been her watcher's area of concern, but she knew without a doubt that you weren't supposed to cough up blood. Something inside of her was bleeding and that was not good. She could feel the change among the vampires as the scent of her blood filled the room.

The vampire walked slowly toward her, looking at her with disgust.

"See the mighty Chosen One. A warrior blessed with the strength and speed to fight our kind." Thoril snorted as Gitara coughed up more blood. "She's nothing but a scared little girl who's taken on much more than she can chew."

Gitara's hand closed around something she'd landed on, as the vampire got closer. She could feel her body malfunctioning. It was almost impossible to breath and her vision began to blur.

Marcus watched silently as his Sire picked up the Slayer with a casual grip around her throat and bent her head to the side, exposing her neck. Thoril sank his fangs into the neck of the Slayer and his eyes widened in shock for a fraction of a second before he turned to dust.

Gitara fell limply to the floor, dropping the stake she'd landed on, grabbed and finally used to destroy the vampire with. She managed to send a last glare at one of the shocked vampires before her world went black.

Marcus rushed over to the fallen Slayer and kicked the stake away. He howled in rage as he sank his fangs into her throat and drank what little he managed to get before her heart ceased to beat. The taste of the blood and the power he felt surging through him almost overwhelmed him. This was nothing like normal blood. He felt like he'd been supercharged, stronger and faster. He dropped the limp body to the ground and stared at it in amazement. So much power in such a small body.

His sire was dead, but he'd had a taste of a power so great that he couldn't have imagined it to exist. He felt like crying and cheering at the same time. Cheering because he knew, just knew, that this power could be used to his advantage. Crying because he also knew that he wouldn't be able to taste the blood of a Slayer when he wanted, and after having it every other kind of blood would feel inadequate.

Marcus looked up from the fallen warrior to the three remaining vampires. They still seemed to be in a state of shock from losing their sire. With a growl he got their attention and no words were spoken as they left the inn and disappeared into the night. He was the oldest of the survivors and he'd been Thoril's right hand. It was only natural that he'd be the one who took over the pack when Thoril was gone.

*****

The Powers That Be immediately knew that the Slayer was dead and a quick check showed that Thoril had killed her. As it was foretold. Two other noteworthy vampires had also been destroyed and a new Slayer had been called. Everything was developing as it should as far as anyone could tell.

It was only one being who noticed the presence of another vampire among Thoril's pack. And that certain youngling was too shocked to inform anyone about it. How could that vampire have survived for so long, and how would it affect the future? He knew the answer to neither question and he surely wasn't going to ask anyone about it. If it came out what he'd done he'd be stripped of his powers and exiled.

And so the centuries passed by and the Powers continued to protect the good. The vampire known as Marcus didn't do much noteworthy things but preferred to stay in the shadows and put the finishing touches to his plans. He'd learned in the Legion that a well thought out plan often won you the battle, even against more powerful enemies. And the Slayer was powerful indeed, as he'd witnessed and tasted first hand.

*****

_Seattle, Washington, 2021 AD._

The atmosphere at Crash was exactly like any other night. The music was pumping in a loud beat and the smell of beer and other beverages were thick in the air. Every now and then cheering could be heard from the direction of the pool tables in the back of the club. The Jam Pony gang was seated at their usual table, pitchers of beer and glasses lined up in front of them. Sketchy was already half drunk and setting himself up for a mother of all hangovers. Original Cindy was there, but at the same time not. Her mind currently focused on some long-legged blonde at the bar. In short, everything was perfectly normal, right down to the ever-present banter between the two transgenics.

"Shut up!" Max hissed. "Just shut up for once!" She sent Alec a death-glare, trying to add some weight to her words.

Alec smirked and winked at her. "Aww, come on Maxie. You know just as well as I do why you keep bringing up my ass all the time."

"Right, in your dreams," Max shot back.

"I'm gonna kick your ass, Alec." Alec failed miserably to imitate Max, mostly due to the fact that he was trying so hard not to laugh.

"You're such an ass!"

"Asshole!"

Max eyes got darker and darker and Alec knew exactly the moment she'd explode.

"Come on Maxie, if you want a closer look at my ass, all you have to do is ask."

Alec leaned back in his chair slightly, increasing the distance between them exactly enough to avoid the punch clearly not directed at his ass.

"Can't keep yourself from touching me, huh?" There was no need to really see his face to check if the smirk was there, it was almost audible.

Max shifted her position in the chair slightly to deliver another punch, this time making sure there was no way for him to get away.

*Beep* *beep* *beep*

Her hand immediately went to her pocket to check her pager, Alec temporarily forgotten.

"Gee, I *wonder* who that can be," Alec said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Max glared at him and opened her mouth to verbally destroy him.

"No, no, no, wait!" Alec interrupted her. "Let me guess. Who could it be? Ah! I know! Logan!"

Max tried unsuccessfully to burn a hole through Alec's head with her gaze. Truth be told, if looks could kill he'd probably already been dead several times over, which made her attempt a little ridiculous.

Alec's face transformed from smirking into a picture of deep thought. "Does anyone else even have the number to your pager?"

"Original Cindy does."

Both transgenics turned to face their friend, a look of surprise on their faces.

"Aiight, you two just go ahead and forget 'bout us," Original Cindy waved a hand in Sketchy's direction.

Sketchy stared at them in a drunken haze, his eyes wandering from Max to Alec and finally to Original Cindy, only to start over again. "What?" he finally asked. "Did I miss something?"

Original Cindy shared an amused look with the two transgenics and shook her head sadly. "C'mon boo, let's go check out the honeys at the bar." And with that she dragged Sketchy away from the table.

Max watched them leave before she glanced at her pager again. Alec sighed dramatically and pulled out his cell phone. "You know Max. It would be a lot easier if you just got yourself your own phone." Alec started. "Every time he calls you just bum my phone to call him back."

"Exactly!" Max agreed. "This way I always have a phone close by and I never pay any bills." She flashed a smile at him as she snatched the phone from his hand and pressed speed-dial.

"Bills?" Alec looked genuinely confused.

"Phone bills, Alec, it costs money to use the phone."

Alec waited a few seconds before he answered, making sure to deliver the punch line exactly when Logan picked up the phone to answer her call.

"Oh, that," he started, waving his hand dismissively. "Dix hacked a couple of phones for us, you could probably have a few for yourself if you asked nicely." He flashed her a grin and retreated out of her reach again.

"What!?" she snapped, just as Logan lifted the phone on the other side.

Alec concentrated on hearing the conversation over the phone and was more than a little disappointed when Logan didn't even react to the unconventional greeting.

'Hi Max. Do you think you and Alec could come over as soon as possible? I've got something important to show you.'

Alec thought that Logan maybe sounded a little more uptight than normally but wrote it off as something he probably didn't want to know about anyway. The hacker had probably got a new e-mail program or something equally stupid to play with.

"Yeah, sure Logan. We'll be rig.." She didn't get any further before the phone on the other end of the line was hung up.

Max frowned and looked questioningly at Alec, who just shrugged. Who knew what Logan was up to? It wasn't like he used to be a guy for small talk in the first place. Things hadn't exactly changed for the better after Max had told him she and Alec were together.

Max tossed the cell back to Alec and grabbed her jacket from the chair. "I'll just let OC know where we're going," she said and headed off in the direction of the bar.

Alec took his own jacket and headed for the exit, waving goodbye to people he knew and throwing in the occasional wink to some of the women.

*****

The ride over to Joshua's old house passed quickly as Max did her best to rattle Alec with her driving, pressing her Ninja to its limits. She shot him an irritated glare as she pulled up in front of the house. Alec rolled his eyes and smirked at her. Everything was normal.

They quickly jogged up the stairs to the door and walked in without knocking.

"Hey Logan. We're..." The sight that met them wasn't exactly what they had expected. "...here," Max trailed off, as the sound of gun-safeties being released filled the room.

Alec glanced over his shoulder and saw several men with guns approaching the door, blocking their only escape route.

Logan was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, his arms and legs bound to the chair with handcuffs. His computer and various other electronic equipment was spread over the floor, most of it smashed to pieces and clearly no longer operational. What caught the eyes of the transgenics weren't the destroyed computers or the otherwise trashed interior of the house. No, what stopped them dead in their tracks was the bloody hole in the chest of the bound hacker. Logan Cale was very much dead and Eyes Only had done his last cable hack.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't my two least favorite freaks," White snarled from where he stood, casually leaning against an upended table.

Without letting out a sound Max launched herself at him with murder in her eyes. Even with the full speed of an X5 she only got half the distance before one of the familiars opened fire. The bullet caught her high in the right side of the chest. The hollow-point slug expanded and almost ripped her arm off at the shoulder. The force of the impact spun her around and she dropped to the floor in an ungraceful heap. It was only the tough build of a pure Manticorean, combined with old-fashioned stubbornness that allowed her to remain conscious.

Alec reacted almost before the shot had been fired and his hands closed around the throat of the man who fired before anyone else could react. He snapped the Familiar's neck, almost tearing his head off, and abruptly launched himself at the next man.

Max watched helpless as the Familiars let loose a hail of bullets at Alec. No matter how fast he was, he couldn't dodge them all. The first bullet hit him in the left thigh, making him stumble slightly and slowing him down enough for the cultists to hit him again. Which they did.

"Alec!" Max screamed as he went down. She gritted her teeth and fought against the pain as she got to her feet and stumbled toward the fallen man, the Familiars and everything else temporarily forgotten.

One of the Familiars swung his gun around in her direction but was stopped before he could fire by a gesture from White.

Max fell to her knees besides Alec, her good arm automatically going to his face to brush away a few stray hairs from his eyes.

His chest was rising and falling in a slow rhythm, and he breathed with a rasping sound. Blood was bubbling from his mouth with every breath and she knew at least one of the shots had penetrated a lung.

"Alec," she whispered. "Please don't do this, don't die on me." Her voice cracked as she started sobbing against his chest. "You're supposed to be there for me, driving me crazy. Don't you dare die and leave me alone!" The effect of the order was slightly weakened by her constant sobbing.

"Ma-ax," Alec croaked.

"Come on Alec, don't leave me!" Max pleaded as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding with her one good arm.

"Don.. don't worry Maxie," Alec halted mid-sentence with a cough, blood pouring out of the corners of his mouth. "I'll never leave you."

His voice grew fainter and fainter as the life poured out of him from his numerous wounds.

"I l... lo.." his chest rose again, a last painful breath before he let out the air for the last time. "...you..."

Max collapsed on top of him, her face buried in his blood soaked shirt as she cried.

"Now, that was fun. I'm almost tempted to let you live only to watch you cry over this animal."

Max was roughly pulled back to here and now when White's boot connected with her side with enough force to lift her off Alec's body.

She hissed in pain, the sudden movement sending spikes of pain through her wounded shoulder. Gritting her teeth she did her best to glare defiantly at White, not quite succeeding as the tears wouldn't stop.

"You'll never find your son if you kill me," she spat.

"Oh, don't worry about him. I've already sent a team to collect him - and kill every single person they find with him."

He gestured toward the body of Logan. "You'll be surprised what some people are willing to give up to save themselves some pain," White said, his voice thick with disgust. "I didn't even have to touch him, only explain what I'd do to him if he refused to talk."

Max blinked twice in surprise, having completely forgotten about Logan when Alec was shot.

"But don't worry. The weak trash like this," he kicked the chair with the bound corpse and watched as it toppled over, "will soon be gone forever."

"It is time for The Coming. We will take our rightful place as the rulers of this world and there is nothing that can stop us." White's eyes gleamed with the fire of a true fanatic.

"But first," White walked over to where Max was slumped on the ground and grabbed a fistful of hair, "I'm going to do something I've put off ever since you kidnapped my son." He yanked her up to a kneeling position and she had to force herself from screaming. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.

"I'd ask if you have any last wishes but frankly I don't give a shit." He raised his gun and the last thing she saw was the muzzle-flash of a gun.

*****

Alec found himself standing in a large, no... make that huge, hall that looked like it could have been pulled straight out of a fantasy novel. Paintings and other decorations covered the walls and there were statues *everywhere*. His Feline DNA soon took control and he started to explore the place. It didn't look like the hall ever ended, and he walked for several minutes without seeming to get anywhere. It then struck him that no matter how richly decorated the hall was, there weren't any colored windows or anything like that. In fact there were no windows at all.

It didn't look like anyone else was around but he did a quick check of his surroundings to be sure. When he felt secure enough he sat down against the wall and drew a deep breath. What the hell happened? Where was he? Why was he here? And most importantly, where was Max?

He closed his eyes and tried to recall his memories like he'd been taught. A second later he wished he'd never done that as the images flooded his mind. Oh God!

He was dead! But he wasn't? Or was he? Was this heaven, or was it hell? He'd never believed in any higher power, the nature of his life so against any religious belief that he'd found the thought of a God to be ridiculous. But how could he still exist if he'd been killed? Feeling the beginnings of a massive headache, he groaned loudly. This had the potential to rival several bottles of scotch and hours of verbal abuse from Max. Where was a bottle of painkillers when you needed them?

To make things even better someone started to bang on a door a few meters to his left. Great, just great! There hadn't even been a door there when he sat down a minute earlier. That's when the shouting started.

This was hell. He just knew it.

*****

Max's eyes snapped open in total darkness. Years of training made her close her eyes again and concentrate on her other senses. Most of the time if you woke up in a dark place without any knowledge of how you got there it was because things had went very wrong.

She focused on her smell and her hearing, two of her senses she could use without giving away that she was conscious and which also didn't require light to work. The room, she had to assume it was a room, smelled of chemicals, soap, polish and window-cleanser being the ones to stand out among the others. Everything was silent. And she really meant *everything*.

Confident that at least no one was around to watch her she opened her eyes and waited for a fraction of a second while they adjusted to the dark around her. The room, however, was completely dark. Transgenic eyesight was great, but there needed to be at least *some* light for even an X5 to see anything. She patted her pocket to see if she still had her pager since the display could be lit up with the press of a button and that light, no matter how faint it was, would be enough to light up the room.

No such luck, the pager was gone.

She closed her eyes again and tried to remember how she got here, wherever here was.

Her reaction was pretty similar to Alec's. She was dead but she was not? Alec was dead though. He'd died in her arms after White's goons had shot him. She felt her chest tighten as she fought back the tears.

With a fluid movement she got to her feet, and banged her head on a shelf she hadn't seen in the dark. Ow!

The sound generated from that accident was enough for her to realize she was in a small, closed space. Probably in a broom closet or something like that. She reached out in front of her and tried to feel her way over to the door that she knew had to be there somewhere. After tripping over a few empty buckets and a mop she found the door handle.

It didn't budge an inch.

She tried again with the same result.

Taking a step back she aimed a powerful kick at the door, just below the door handle. It was like kicking a stonewall and the only result was a sore foot. Who the hell built a broom closet sturdy enough to lock in a transgenic in? Oh well, whoever locked her in there was sure to know she was awake by now. She started to bang on the door with her fists, trying to draw attention. After a little while she decided to start yelling too. She might as well let them know she was displeased with the accommodations.

*****

The banging on the door got louder and louder, and so did the screams. He couldn't make out the words through the door, which was strange. It seemed to be a normal closet door, probably of wood and not too thick. He should have been able to hear a normal conversation through a door like that, the shouts even easier.

He got to his feet and walked over to the door. Whoever or whatever was on the other side obviously wanted out. Oh well, why wait. It wasn't likely the shouting and banging would stop any time soon and it was getting on his nerves. He reached out and twisted the doorknob, opening the door.

And got a fist to his shoulder for the effort.

He stumbled back slightly but quickly caught himself and slipped into a defensive stance, ready to take on whatever threat he'd released.

His jaw dropped to the floor as the person stepped through the open door.

"Max?" he asked, disbelief in his voice.

"Alec?" Max sounded absolutely shocked. "But you're... dead?"

"Well, yeah, join the club," Alec responded with his trademark grin.

"Don't you dare scare me like that again!" Max screeched as she launched herself at him.

Alec groaned out loud. "Oh yeah, this is definitely hell."

He managed to grab her forearms with his hands, to keep her from hitting him, and was just working on restraining her legs when the room disappeared around them. Alec released her arms in sheer shock as they suddenly found themselves in something that looked like a courtroom. He stumbled back slightly as Max promptly resumed hitting him.

"Max," he tried.

No result.

"Max!" A little more forcefully this time.

That was enough to bring her out of her 'use Alec as a punching bag' mode and her eyes focused on him.

"What!?" she snapped.

Alec really had no idea how to answer that question so he just lamely waved in the general direction of the seven figures seated at the other side of the room.

Max eyes grew huge as she took in the view. Four of the figures were clearly human, or at least human like. The other three were just as clearly not. One was only a few feet tall and covered with a sort of orange fur. It peered at them with huge yellow eyes. The one to the far left was absolutely huge. He... or she...? It was over 9 feet tall and the two horns added another half a foot to that. The muscular body was covered with grey and blue scales and the small eyes were a gleaming red. The third and last non-human was seated in the middle of the group, much like a judge would be. It wasn't really a figure but more like swirling mist in all the rainbow's colors, which took a vaguely human shape as they watched.

"Welcome," the being in the middle started.

"We are..." another one continued only to be interrupted.

"Who the hell are you?" Max demanded.

Alec groaned. "I think they were just about to tell us. Now be quiet and listen like a good girl."

Max glared at him for a few seconds before a polite cough from one of the seven made her turn around to face them again.

"We are..."

"The Powers..."

"That Be."

The figures said, speaking a few words each like they were afraid to let any of them talk more than the others.

"Oh really," Max snapped.

Alec closed his eyes and counted silently to ten.

"No, not really," the figure in the middle answered. "But we work for them and carry out their wishes."

"Oh," Max said, clearly not understanding.

Alec decided to take over their part of the conversation while Max actually was quiet. "So why are we here and what do you want with us?"

"We have..."

"A problem..."

"And we need..."

"Your help."

Max glared at the figures one at a time and then started over again when she reached the last one. "Y'know, that's really irritating when ya talk like that."

"We know but..."

"We can not..."

"Help it."

Max sighed dramatically and made a huge show of giving up. Alec just rolled his eyes and shrugged apologetically to the figures.

"Why don't you tell us what your problem is, how we can help and what we'd get out of it?" Alec said. "And by the way, where are we?"

"You are..."

"In between."

The figure in the middle silenced the others with a gesture, something that looked like an extremely odd thing, for someone without a solid body, to do.

"As they said, you are in between." The figure held up a tendril of mist that took the shape of a hand to silence Max who'd started to protest.

"Please listen first and I'll try to answer your questions later."

Max reluctantly agreed and nodded. Alec just shrugged and gestured for the being to go ahead.

"You are in between. Your lives in your reality ended and your souls were released to the afterlife. However, we find ourselves with a slight problem at the moment and brought you here to offer you a chance to continue the fight against evil."

"Wooha, hold it a minute pal," Alec interrupted. "Who said we've been fighting evil and why would we want to continue a fight we've already lost? The Familiars have already won."

The multicolored mist shifted slightly and Alec got the impression that the being was smiling. "We know everything about you," it said cryptically. "And yes, the Familiars have won and finally provided us with the answer to the question for which your reality was created."

Once again the being held up something that resembled a hand to silence them. "Please just listen for now."

The two X5's nodded, not really sure what else to do.

"The world you know and lived in for your entire lives is but one of many different realities. Yours was the first created and one we could not influence at all. It was created for the sole purpose of answering the question whether mankind really was good or evil. We now have the answer to that question."

The figure paused for a moment to let the two transgenics reflect over what it'd just said.

"Yes, mankind is thoroughly evil."

"Like that was something new," Max muttered.

The shimmering colors ignored her. "Your reality was created and based on science and left to fend for itself. There are however other realities where we can interfere if the need arises. Several other realities are influenced by magic and other supernatural forces. What that means is that the forces of evil in other realities are very different from the ones you faced. While there always will be evil humans, the main threats are not always human in nature. Your reality answered a question, it was the sole purpose of its existence. Neither we nor anyone else knew what the outcome would be. Other realities however have more carefully created plans. Things that are supposed to happen and things that *need* to happen for Creation to move on."

"In one of the other realities, one which we have had slight problems with earlier, there is a threat to those plans. How it happened we do not know, nor can we fix it directly. What we do know is that should our chosen warriors fall to the forces of darkness, the result would be disastrous. What we offer you is a chance to fight as our champions in another reality. Somewhere where you wouldn't be hunted and hated by everyone, somewhere you, with a little effort, could use most of your abilities and still remain unknown. You could live normal lives without the constant fear that your creators would find you again."

Max and Alec looked at each other for a long moment before turning simultaneously to face the seven. Max was the first one to speak. Like always.

"Why would we care 'bout some other world. Why sacrifice more of our lives to a world where no one even knows us? What would happen if we said no?"

"If you say no you will continue to the afterlife. It is not life in the way you define it, it's more a feeling of contentment. Forever." After a slight pause the being continued. "What you need to know is that while this is a different reality, it is not a different world. The world is very much the same as the one you've lived in, though this reality was created roughly 22 human years later, which means it's still the year 1999 there. A different reality means it's populated by the same individuals that lived in your world. Everyone you know from that world, that is everyone human, will exist in this world or come to exist if they aren't born yet." The hand-like thing came up once again to silence them. "You must realize that the ones you knew in your reality won't know you here, and because of the time difference most of your friends will be infants or not even born yet. They will however come to exist in this reality as well as they did in yours. Unless the forces of evil prevail."

Max eyes were huge as she spoke. "So you mean we can save Original Cindy and Sketchy and everyone else?"

"If you can prevent the forces of darkness to prevail the answer is yes."

"Cool, where do we sign up?" Max smiled.

"Oh no, hold it right there," Alec interrupted. "What would we be fighting against and how would we hold up against the 'forces of evil,'" he asked, making big quotes in the air when he said the last part. "And, while we're at it... What exactly does it mean to be your champions?"

"The main threat in this reality is supernatural in kind. There will most likely be human threats from time to time but the main enemy is not human. Fighting would be done mostly hand to hand, something I understand you're quite well prepared for."

They were both quiet while they let that piece of information sink in. Max was relieved to know that she wouldn't have to hurt or kill humans. Alec knew he could do it if needed but was at the same time thankful he wouldn't have to do it on regular basis.

"And the Champions?" Alec insisted.

The beings were silent for a long time before the swirling colors finally responded. "Champions fight the forces of evil for The Powers That Be. They're provided with the means necessary to do that and the directions of where and when to find the battles."

"No," Alec said. "No way. There is no chance I'll sign up for that."

"Alec! What the hell do you mean?" Max glared daggers at him. "Why would you *not* want to save our friends if you could?"

"Max," Alec warned as she took a step closer and clenched her right hand into a fist. She stopped in the middle of the motion and just glared at him, waiting for him to explain himself.

"Don't you see Maxie, it's the same all over again. Go there. Fight that. Kill this. Blow up that. It's Manticore again with another name and hopefully less torture. The whole lack of freedom gig isn't my thing anymore." He could see understanding in her face now as she began to see things from his point of view. It wouldn't be Manticore, but in the end they still wouldn't run their own lives.

"The way I see it," Alec said, turning to the beings. "If you really need our help you'll let us off the hook. We'll listen to what you say and talk to whoever you want to when we get... there." The strangeness of the situation was just too much. Here he was discussing their resurrection and future lives in another reality. "We decide when and where to fight and even *if* we want to fight. That's my terms, take 'em or leave 'em."

"Alec," Max started.

"We will..."

"Have to..."

"Discuss this."

"Alec!" Alec ignored her.

One of the beings waved a hand and a wall appeared between the two transgenics and the representatives for The Powers That Be.

"Alec!" Max shouted. "Do you have any idea what you've done? What if they don't let us go there now!?"

Alec took a deep breath and prepared to get into a verbal battle with her. There's no way she'll understand if I just explain it, he thought.

"You heard what that thing said," Max continued before he could open his mouth. "Afterlife is nothing like life. There won't even be any blonde bimbos for you to chase and no scotch and... and..." And there would be no way they could be together or even close to each other. But that wasn't something she was going to tell him out loud.

"Max, as much as I like blondes and scotch I value my freedom more. It might sound strange to you but that's how it is." Alec sighed. "And trust me, they wouldn't have brought us here if they didn't really, and I mean *really*, need our help. They'll let us go without the leash on. They can't afford not to."

Max chewed air for a moment before she pulled herself together. "Maybe you're right," she reluctantly admitted.

Alec took a step back in mock surprise. "Mark this day in the calendar. Max admitted I was right!"

Max slugged him in the shoulder and glared at him. "I said *maybe*, smart ass."

"Ahh... everything is back to normal again. I almost missed your fixation with my ass," Alec smirked.

"Shut up!"

*****

The wall disappeared again and the transgenics found themselves standing in front of the seven beings again.

"We have..."

"Discussed this..."

"Thoroughly and..."

"We have decided..."

"To grant your wish."

Max blinked and her eyes darted between Alec and the seven. "Does this mean you'll let us go without any hold on us?" she asked, not quite willing to accept what she heard.

"Yes," the swirling colors said. "You are free to go under one condition."

"Which is?" Alec questioned.

"You will go to this address and meet the people there at the time mentioned." A table appeared right in front of them and on it laid a small piece of white paper with two lines of text on.

_1630 Revello Drive.  
9.30 p.m._

"We realize we can not force you to join the fight. We do, however, hope that your sense of justice and honor will make you take the right decisions. After all, you are our only hope."

With that the seven beings, the courtroom and everything else around them disappeared and they suddenly found themselves standing in the middle of a dark graveyard.

"Wow." It was really the only comment needed as it pretty much covered everything.

They were both dressed in their 'mission clothes'. Combat boots, black and grey camouflage pants, a black T-shirt for Alec and a black top for Max. It was clothes they'd worn for countless Eyes Only missions and numerous times when they'd gone on missions for the transgenics in Terminal City.

If you ignored the whole 'being in another reality' thing it could have been a night like any other.

Alec stuffed his hands down in is pockets and the right one immediately came up with a small piece of paper. He glanced at his clock which, he had to assume, showed the local time.

The digital numbers read: 20:14

Max was still trying to cope with the idea that they were alive and free again. Or rather, alive again and free for the first time ever. She took a look around and tried to figure out where in the world they could be. From the name of the street on the note they got she figured it had to be an English speaking country. But which one? English was good though, it meant that she could communicate with the people here without any problem. She could learn other languages fairly quick but she was only fluent in English and Spanish at the moment. She glanced over at Alec who'd bent down to read the inscription on a tombstone. He probably spoke several more languages considering the extra ten years of training he had and all the mission he'd been on.

"Come on Alec, move your ass. We need to find this address and we don't have much time to waste."

Alec flashed her a grin. "Damn, if I were this obsessed with your ass..." Which he of course was but he sure as hell wasn't going to tell her that. He dodged the roundhouse kick and laughed as she snorted at him.

-----


	2. Chapter One

_Disclaimer:_ Disclaimer for all of the story can be found before the Prologue. 

_A/N:_ Since I had this chapter already written I decided to post it now. Unfortunately this is a one shot deal and the next chapter _will_ take longer time to get up.

Many thanks to Infie, Maia and Merlin The Enchanter.

Please let me know what you think.

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**_

Chapter One

_**

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Sunnydale California, 3 days after Graduation 1999.

_

Buffy Summers was sitting on a small stone in the park, staring off into space. The afternoon sun was blazing and the light breeze did nothing to lower the temperature. Her best friend Willow was sitting not far away, closely watching her friend. They'd come to the park to talk, to try to figure out what to do during the summer and how to move on after Graduation.

The nature of the Hellmouth made sure that most people already had forgotten what happened at Graduation day, and those who hadn't would soon. The Sunnydale Times reported gangs on PCP and a gas-leak leading to the explosion of the school. What couldn't be forgotten though were the lives lost. Whether you believed it to be a gas leak or knew the truth, several people had died just a few days ago.

Willow sighed and moved slightly to remain in the shadow of the tree as the sun moved across the sky. Buffy had been in a state of almost shock the past days. She was happy that they had managed to destroy the Mayor. She was thrown for a loop though with the sudden inactivity when it came to slaying and she was worried about her friends.

Xander had declared his intentions to go on a road trip to discover America. While it was a relief to know he'd be away from the Hellmouth she also knew that he would without a doubt manage to get into trouble on his trip. And he wouldn't have any of the gang there to help him out when he was so far away.

And then there was Angel.

Or rather, there wasn't Angel. Angel had left. While she realized it probably was for the best she still felt empty inside. Why did her life have to be so complicated? It wasn't enough to be a vampire slayer. No, she had to fall in love with a vampire too. Looking back on it, she knew she should have been able to tell it would end in disaster, but she was young and hopelessly in love.

Willow no longer had Oz as an anchor in their messed up lives. He'd gone on a wolf-trip or something like that. It had to do with the wolf at least. She'd buried herself in books about witchcraft and spent countless hours on the Internet, searching for information or just trying to escape from reality for a while.

The summer was here with a lower vampire activity and never any major prophecies to prevent or take care of. She had no idea why the vampires seemed to move to other locations during the summer but she was thankful for the time off. At least she used to be. Now it felt like they needed something to happen, something that would pull what was left of the gang together again.

She sighed and moved down from the stone to sit with her back against it.

Willow heard her friend's sigh and her face took a questioning expression. Buffy was just about to answer when they were interrupted by a new voice.

"Hey tootsy," a voice said with a heavy New York accent.

"Whistler," Buffy acknowledged the demons presence. "What are you doing here?"

"Buff, tell me you didn't wish for something to happen," Willow pleaded, a slightly panicked expression on her face. She had a sinking feeling in her gut that she knew what the sigh had been about.

Buffy got a guilty look on her face as she realized what she'd done. Never, ever wish for something to happen on the Hellmouth.

"So what is it this time? Some slimey demon or another apocalypse?" Buffy asked with a slightly lighter tone. No matter what bad she'd brought fourth by jinxing them, at least something would happen.

"Have no clue sweetheart," Whistler said. "I just got the word myself. Gonna meet with some higher ups soon and get the low down."

Buffy frowned. "So what are you doing here then?"

Whistler shrugged. "Beats me."

"Whistler," Buffy said with a hint of warning in her tone. "I know you're supposed to be a good demon but you're still a *demon*." She pointed at him, "demon," and then at herself, "Slayer. You do the math," she finished with a glare.

"Y'know, you really need to chill a bit."

Buffy just looked pointedly at him.

Whistler sighed. "Fine. They wanted me to tell you to get the gang together for tonight. 9 p.m. at your place."

"Why?" Buffy demanded.

"Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger." He looked at his watch. "And I have a meeting to attend now. See ya."

Willow and Buffy looked at each other as Whistler disappeared behind some bushes. Buffy opened her mouth to say apologize or at least say something but Willow held up her hand to silence the Slayer.

"Don't," she started. "Whatever is happening it's big enough for *them* to send him here. We better find Xander and Giles."

Buffy sighed and nodded as she got up. "Right," she started. "Let's go find Xander first."

The two of them left the park walking...

...and ran right into Xander, literally.

"Oompfhh!" Xander groaned as he picked himself up from the ground. Buffy had only bounced back a step when they collided and looked at him with an amused expression.

"In a hurry, Xan?" She asked.

Xander pasted a goofy grin on his face and dusted of his shirt. "Hey Buff, Will," he greeted them. "I was just looking for my two favorite girls actually."

"Xander! We were just looking for you because we really, really need to talk to you and now we bumped into you here which is good because now we don't have to go looking for you." Willow drew a deep breath to continue babbling.

"Will, breathe," Buffy ordered. "You were looking for us?" She continued questioningly to Xander.

"Yeah, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to do something tonight before patrol? Maybe go to the movies or something?"

"Sorry Xan, we have to meet at my place tonight for something important."

"Oh," Xander's face fell a bit. "Should I come too?"

Willow got a puzzled expression on her face. "Of course you should. Why wouldn't we want you to?"

Xander shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I guess it has to do with the slayage and I thought you didn't want me to..." His eyes dropped to the ground.

"Oh Xan. It's not like that," Buffy said gently. "Besides, Whistler asked us to find you and bring you there so you'll have to come whether you want to or not," she finished with a smile.

"Whistler? What's going on now Buff?"

"We don't know!" Willow exclaimed. "He just want to meet us there and he was going to talk to someone and find out more and do you think it's another apocalypse or something? We just took care of the Mayor and we don't need another one right now." Willow's voice was almost pleading at the end.

"Whatever it is we'll kick its ass and beat it back to where it came from," Buffy said cheerfully. "Come on, we need to find Giles and let him know."

*****

"Giles! Are you home?" Buffy called as they entered his apartment. It probably was a stupid question, considering the open door they had just walked through.

They walked into the living room at the same time as Giles came out from the kitchen.

"Hello Buffy," he started. "Willow, Xander," he finished. "What are you doing in here, if I may ask?"

"We needed to talk to you," Buffy stated.

"No, I meant, what are you doing *in* my apartment? As far as I know it's common custom to knock at the door before you enter."

"Oh," Buffy said surprised. "The door was open so we thought it would be easier to just come on in. Save you the walk to the door and all," she finished with a smile. "Y'know, you really should be more careful with locking the door."

"Yes, perhaps you are right." Giles sighed. "Very well, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Whistler came by when we were at the park," Buffy started and waved in Willow's direction to show who 'we' were. "He wanted us to meet him at home tonight. Said he'd to talk to some guys before that." Buffy shrugged.

"Oh," Giles said. "Did he give any clues as to what he wanted to talk to us about?"

"No, he just said we should get together at 9 pm at Buffy's house," Willow said.

"Very well," Giles started, taking of his glasses to polish them. "It shouldn't be something important I think. There are no major prophecies upcoming and the summer is generally quiet even here."

"If it wasn't something important they wouldn't have sent message boy here?" Xander questioned.

"You might be right, Xander," Giles sighed. "I guess we will all have to wait until tonight to find out. Does anyone want some tea while we wait?"

"Tea?" Xander said shocked. "It's like a million degrees outside. We need something cold and not something hot."

"It's still early, we could go down to the mall and get some Ice Cream," Willow suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Buffy decided. "Meet us at home around 9 tonight Giles."

Giles sighed. "I will see you later then. Good bye."

"Bye G-man," Xander said over his shoulder as they walked out, and smiled as Giles scowled after him.

*****

"Mom," Buffy said as she put her plate away after dinner. "Will, Xander and Giles are coming over tonight. There is something we need to talk about."

"Okay honey," Joyce said. "Is there something going on that I should know about?"

"I don't know mom," Buffy sighed. "Whistler came and saw me in the park today and he said he wanted us to meet up here and that he had to talk to us."

"Whistler?" Joyce asked.

"He's a balance demon, mom." Buffy gestured absently with her arms. "Sort of a messenger for The Powers That Be."

"Oh. I guess I'll have to prepare some tea for Rupert then." Joyce tried to sound like it was just an every-day event. Which it, considering the Hellmouth, surprisingly wasn't.

Buffy stepped up to her to give her a hug. "Don't worry mom. Giles says there's no creepy prophecies and no big bad scheduled for at least a few weeks."

The joke did a little to lighten up the mood as Joyce hugged her daughter back. "Good, just be careful whatever it is this time."

"Don't worry mom, we'll be all right."

*****

The two transgenics paused for a second to take a closer look at their surroundings. The cemetery they were in was *huge*, by far the largest they'd ever seen. Graveyards had actually been rather sparse in their reality, at least in Seattle. Not many people had the money needed to bury their dead loved ones in a cemetery by a church. Most people found a secluded area in a forest, preferably some place that held a special memory for the family, and buried their relatives there. This was much different. There were actually several crypts and other small buildings of some sort scattered over the cemetery.

They both listened for any life signs and quickly picked up the sounds of traffic from one direction. Since they couldn't see the exit they started off in that direction, knowing that they at least would get out of the cemetery that way.

They walked for close to two minutes in silence before Alec broke the silence.

"I wonder how big this city really is. This cemetery looks really big."

Max let her gaze sweep over the endless rows of headstones and shook off the chill that crept up her spine. "Yeah, it's way big." She drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Something feels off with this place."

Alec nodded slightly. He'd been thinking the same thing. "Yeah, something doesn't feel right." He shrugged. "Not that I have lots of experience walking around in graveyards by night though."

"Neither have I," Max replied absently. "But still..." she trailed off.

They continued to walk in silence and it wasn't long before they could see the low fence that marked the border of the cemetery. The buildings outside the fence looked like a residential district with lots of one-family homes. They walked side by side toward the fence, carefully stepping around the graves.

"We should try to find a telephone booth or something like that," Max said. "There should be a map in the telephone directory."

"If they do things here like we did in our reality Max, which we don't know for sure," Alec said. "But I guess we better give it a try."

They reached the fence and were just about to clear it when they were interrupted by a voice coming from somewhere behind them.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

The two X5's turned around to face the speaker and were confronted with four persons, three guys and one brunette girl. They all had one thing in common though - a horrible fashion sense.

Max rolled her eyes. "Of all lame things to say..."

Alec looked closer at the group. There was something very off about them but he couldn't say exactly what it was. They looked a little pale and dressed like people did in some of the oldest movies he'd seen and not like in the ones from this time period. The guy in the middle took a step toward them and Alec put up his hands, palms turned against them.

"We don't want any trouble," he started. "And we really don't have time to deal with this," he sighed as two of the others also advanced.

"Oh, don't worry," the leader said. "You wont have to worry about being late anywhere."

"Look, asshole," Max snapped. "I've had a bad day already and I'm really not in the mood to beat your scrawny asses just to be left alone."

The leader, a slightly fat guy with dark hair, *growled* at them. "Get them," he ordered his friends.

Alec's eyes widened in surprise as the faces of the attackers *changed*. Their eyes turned yellow and their faces grew ridges and fangs. The four of them attacked with a growl and Alec slipped into a defensive stance.

"I'm gonna rip you apart, bloodbag," one of the guys shouted as he lounged for Max. The female of the group followed him, leaving Alec to deal with two guys.

Max rolled her eyes again. Some people were just too stupid to know when to leave it alone. She ducked under the first punch and countered with a punch of her own. She was careful not to use too much strength as she aimed for the guy's cheek. His head snapped back and he stumbled back a few steps, clearly dazed but not unconscious as he should have been. She stared astonished at him for a moment before the female attacker reached her and she had to dodge a clumsy haymaker. These guys had no idea of how to fight. She connected with a spin kick to the chest of the female and sent her flying back into a headstone. The stone cracked under the impact but the girl just bounced right back up again.

Max had been a little closer to the attackers and they had reached her first. Seeing how her punches didn't appear to have any affect on their attackers Alec decided not to hold back as much. When the first guy reached him he used his forearm to change the direction of the punch, tilting his head slightly to avoid getting hit. His right arm shot out faster than the human eye could follow and connected with a sickening crush to the guy's nose. He fell to the ground in a boneless heap and didn't move.

His companion saw what happened and instead of withdrawing he growled and attacked in rage. Alec sidestepped the attack and used his left leg to trip the guy. As the attacker fell he spun around with a spin kick and planted his right foot in the back of the guys head. The second guy joined his friend on the grass and lay motionless.

Alec had kept an eye on Max through the fight and as soon as she'd realized the attackers could take a little more beating than a normal human she'd stopped holding back as much. The guy was on the ground, clearly unconscious and Max was playing with the girl, letting her attack only to dodge the clumsy punches and throwing the girl to the ground.

"Come on," she taunted after sweeping out the legs under the girl. "Is that all you got?"

Alec chuckled. "And you're the one to talk about lame things to say."

Max trapped the girl's wrist in a wise-like grip and snapped it. She shoved the screaming girl back and spun around to plant a kick in her temple and knocked her out.

"Shut up!" she glared at Alec.

The two of them jumped easily over the fence and left the graveyard. They walked away on the street in the direction that looked like it would lead them toward the centre of the city.

"What the hell do you think those guys were?" Max asked. They had been way tougher than normal humans and their faces...

"No idea," Alec said. He didn't like not knowing what they were up against and at the moment he really had no idea at all. "What if there is something like Manticore here? They looked like they could have been an early X-series."

"Yeah, maybe," Max answered. "But how could they change their faces like that? They looked perfectly human when we first saw them."

Alec shrugged. "Maybe they're still figuring out some problems with the genetic make up. That would explain why they were so stupid and untrained."

Max nodded absently. "Those power-guys said there was no Manticore in this reality."

"Yeah," Alec agreed. "Manticore was created because of the familiars and if there are no familiars here there shouldn't be any Manticore either." They continued their walk in silence for a minute before Alec spoke again. "We should probably try to keep the whole deal with transgenics a secret for now. At least until we know what we're dealing with and if we can trust anyone here."

Max sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it you're probably right."

Alec's mouth twisted into a smirk and he had a perfect reply on his lips.

"You're *probably* right," Max said before he could respond. "And I don't expect it to happen again soon so just shut up."

Alec rolled his eyes. They reached the street corner and reached parts of the city that were occupied by more business like buildings. Suddenly it struck him that even though they'd seen a few cars there were hardly anyone moving on the streets. Maybe gangs like the one they met at the graveyard were common in this city? He spotted a phone booth half a block down, and on the other side of, the street and pointed it out for Max.

A minute later she had found the pages with the maps and ripped them out.

Alec sighed dramatically. "We haven't been here an hour yet and you're already stealing."

Max shot him a quick glare before she returned her attention to the maps. "There," she said after a few seconds and pointed out their destination for him on the map. "It doesn't look like it's that far away."

Alec looked at the map and memorized it quickly before handing it back. "Nah, should be easy to get there in time," he said. "Let's go."

*****

Xander pulled up to Willow's house in his uncle's car and killed the engine. He looked around a little nervously to make sure no vampires were close by before he got out and headed for the door. He had stakes and crosses and holy water with him, of course. Going out at night without them was like leaving the door unlocked with a sign on the mailbox telling everyone about it. It was simply not done. Well, it was something you didn't do if you knew what was actually crawling around in this town after the sun went down.

He knocked on the door and had barely withdrawn his hand before Willow came rushing out and slammed it shut behind her.

"Come on Xander," she said breathlessly as she locked the door. "We're already late!"

"Will, there's lots of time left." Xander reassured the redhead.

Willow bounced down to the car and got in with a sighing Xander following behind.

"So what do you think this is all about?" Xander asked as he started the car and headed toward Buffy's house.

Willow frowned. "I don't know," she said. "But I don't think it's good. I mean, why would they send him here just to get us together so he could talk to us all before he even knew what he was going to tell us."

Xander shrugged, not too worried about the whole situation. They had dealt with bad things before and they would have to do it again. This was just another day, or when it came to this town and the Hellmouth, another night.

They pulled up in front of Buffy's house a few minutes before 9 pm and found Buffy waiting for them by the door.

"Hey," she said and moved away from the doorstep. "Giles is already here." She never asked them to come in, of course. It was just another thing you never did after sunset in Sunnydale.

"Giles, Willow and Xander are here!" she yelled into the house.

The Watcher came to the door to greet the new arrivals and quickly took charge. "We should assemble in the living room immediately," he said. "We need to discuss this and find out if we know anything about the situation at hand."

"Well, I don't," Xander said as he grabbed a donut from a bag he'd brought and threw himself down on the couch.

Giles shot him a look that clearly said that he didn't expect the boy to know anything. "Buffy, could you please tell me about your meeting with the demon Whistler."

Buffy sat down on an empty spot on the couch. "Sure Giles," she said. "Whistler came when we were in the park today. He was his usual self and said that he needed to meet us here tonight. I asked him what it was all about and he said he had no idea but he was going to talk to some 'higher ups' later today."

"I see," Giles said. He pulled off his glasses and absently started cleaning them. "He didn't let anything slip that would give us a hint what this is concerning?"

Buffy shook her head. "Nah, I don't think he knew what it's about."

"This is mostly disturbing. I do not like when things happen out of order," Giles sighed.

"We've handled the Mayor and the Master and everything else. How bad can this be?" Buffy asked.

"Y'know Buff, this really is the wrong place to say something like that," Xander said.

"I wish you would refrain from saying things like that, Buffy," Giles agreed. "After all, this is the Hellmouth."

The discussion was interrupted by someone knocking lightly on the door. Buffy jumped up from the couch and went to open the door. She frowned as she wondered who could possibly come by this late. She couldn't feel any vampires outside the door so she opened it, only to find a *very* nervous looking Whistler.

"Um... hi," the demon said.

"Whistler," Buffy started. "Since when do you knock?" She stepped aside to let the balance demon in.

"Maybe he's in for a raise and tries to score points with his bosses?" Xander quipped from the living room.

They entered the living room and Whistler stood still for a second, looking like if he was trying to decide whether to run away or sit down. Finally he took a seat and sighed deeply.

"Well, now that we are all here like you requested maybe you could inform us why you wanted this meeting to take place," Giles said.

"Umm... well..."

"Whistler," Buffy said in a threatening voice.

"We have a problem," the demon blurted out.

"Now that was unexpected. Couldn't have seen that one coming," Xander said.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Y'know, he's actually right. We figured that much out by ourselves. Maybe you could let us in on what the problem is?"

Willow had been sitting quietly since Whistler arrived and had been watching the demon very closely. She hadn't met him many times before but she had *never* seen him act like this. "This is bad, isn't it?" she said. "You wouldn't be acting like this if it wasn't."

Whistler sighed again. "You're right, Red. It could be really bad but we're not sure."

"Why don't you start at the beginning and tell us what the problem is," Giles suggested. He was more than a little nervous by now. Something that was considered bad by the Powers and made this balance demon very nervous couldn't be good. And none of his books mentioned anything about any upcoming apocalypses in the near future.

"Right," Whistler said. "Here is what we know, in a nutshell."

Everybody leaned forward a little as they prepared to be told what the latest apocalypse was about. Joyce, who had been sitting quietly through the meeting so far, was looking at the assembled teenagers and her daughter's Watcher. She wanted to be here to know what was going to happen, even though she never was involved directly in the slaying.

"Almost two thousand years ago someone working for The Powers screwed up pretty bad," Whistler started. "Some guy who should have died normally was turned into a vamp, and has been surviving and gathering followers since then. They're here in Sunnydale and we have no idea what they're up to."

"How could this guy be turned, just because someone screwed up?" Xander asked.

"We don't know," Whistler said, frustrated. "Someone used their powers to change the fate of this guy, and at the same time something happened to a vampire to make him do something else that he wasn't supposed to." He groaned loudly. "It's not even supposed to be possible to affect someone without a soul, no matter how you try."

"I assume this means that you can't persuade this vampire to commit suicide or something similar? Giles asked.

"Exactly," Whistler said. "This vampire shouldn't exist and because of that there isn't any prophecy that fits the current situation."

"Well, it doesn't sound too bad," Buffy said cheerfully. "What's twenty or thirty more vamps when the whole town is crawling with them?"

"Buffy, I don't think you see the danger we are facing here," Giles said. "This vampire is almost thirteen hundred years older than Kakhistos." He paused for a second to let the words sink in. "And remember that if it wasn't for Xander here you would have died by the hands of the other ancient vampire we've faced, the Master."

"Yeah, and that's another thing they're still pissed about up there," Whistler said. "You're not on their birthday-list you know," he told Xander.

"What was I supposed to do? Let her die?"

"Well, that's what was supposed to happen," Whistler said and got a hostile glare from everyone in the room. "I don't think they've ever had anyone who has interfered as much with the plan as you have," he grinned.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"When the kid over there messed up the big plan the first time they put a watcher on him to make sure he didn't do it again. I don't think they ever have been forced to have one of the elders step in directly to make sure things played out as they should." He turned to Xander again. "Y'know you were so close to bringing her back to the good side that night. I'm really impressed actually. One of the elders had to use a great deal of his power to make her throw you out."

Xander's mouth opened and closed silently as he felt a blush spread over his face. Before he had the chance to say anything Whistler continued.

"But, you might get another chance, kid," he smirked. "Since this is really The Powers' fault from the beginning they're bringing in some reinforcements for you."

Giles cleared his throat. "What exactly do you mean by 'reinforcements'?" he asked.

"Well, they're letting Faith back into the fight, on the side she wants to fight on and..." He didn't get any further, as Buffy practically exploded.

"What!?! You're letting that psycho murderer out again?" she yelled.

Willow was the only one to notice how Xander's eyes darkened at Buffy's words, but she soon had other things on her mind.

"Buffy, would you please sit and calm down again," Giles said.

"Y'know Slayer," Whistler started. "From what I got from the higher ups they were forced to let her go to the dark side because of you. You were supposed to be dead, and having two Slayers disrupted the balance between good and evil. Some of the ones in charge wanted to let you go, but in the end I think they played rock-paper-scissors about the whole thing. The ones who wanted you to go bad, lost two to one in a best of three game."

Buffy's eyes widened in shock and she slumped down on the couch again, no longer able to speak as she tried to comprehend what the balance demon just said.

Xander just stared at the demon in shock. It was his fault that Faith had gone bad. Had been forced to go bad, he corrected himself. If he hadn't saved Buffy from the Master it would never have happened. He closed his eyes and buried his head in his hands. Even if he'd known that and known everything else, could he have let Buffy die just to stop it from happening? He knew the answer to that question even before the question itself had fully formed in his head. There was no way he could have let someone die just on the off chance that he would be happy.

Giles and Joyce shared a look, both clearly relieved that it hadn't been Buffy who had been chosen, and at the same time clearly disturbed by the whole thing. The thought that The Powers could play with their lives this easily was not a comforting one.

Willow, who had hated the dark haired Slayer with a passion, felt a lump in her throat and the tears pushing to be let out. To imagine that someone could be forced against their will to do the things Faith had done was horrific.

The Scoobies stared absently out into the room as they tried to digest what Whistler said.

"As I was trying to say before, they're bringing in some additional help too. They never told me about them, only that they would be here by 9.30 or around then, tonight."

Giles blinked a few times as he tried to compose himself. "Excuse me, what did you just say?"

Whistler sighed. "They're bringing in some more help," he repeated.

"I see," Giles said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "If they are returning Faith, are they also bringing back Kendra? Or are they calling yet another Slayer?" he then asked.

"Nah, they can't bring back the dead, it's against all the rules and laws," Whistler explained. "And they can't call another Slayer either. They can't change the fates of the souls in this reality, no matter how much they want to."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand," Giles said. "If The Powers can't call another champion to aid us, how then are they going to help?"

Whistler shrugged. "No idea, they didn't tell me everything." His lips curved into a grin. "But I bet it'll be a blast finding out."

The Slayerettes sat quietly, trying to absorb everything the demon had told them. Giles was just going to ask another question about the 'help' when someone knocked on the door.

"That's my cue to leave," Whistler said. "You have fun, kiddies." With that he disappeared into the kitchen.

"Wait a minute," Xander said and jumped up to follow him, only to return a few seconds later to announce that the balance demon was gone.

Buffy got up to answer the knock on the door. The others turned to face the door as well, curious to find out who it would be.

*****

Max and Alec moved quickly along the mostly empty streets. They could see people walking here and there but not as many as one would have expected. The city they had found themselves in was like something out of a movie - nice houses, well maintained gardens, and all the cars they saw looked almost new. For people who had grown up in post pulse America it was almost surreal. The Powers had told them this reality was roughly twenty two years younger than theirs and the apocalyptic event that took place in 2009 hadn't happened. Alec found himself wondering if something of that magnitude would happen in this reality too in about ten years, or if things were completely different here. And if it would happen, could they stop it if they were still around by then?

Max grabbed hold of Alec's shoulder and pointed at a figure that was hurrying along the street, constantly checking around himself nervously. The few people they'd seen had acted the same. Whether they were moving in groups or alone, everyone seemed to be scared, or at least not comfortable about being outside. It wasn't like in Seattle where the police and the hover-drones kept an eye on everything to give people a false sense of security. In truth, the sector police had been the ones you really had to look out for while avoiding getting on their wrong side. That meant paying the bribes and the blackmail money in time and not complaining too much about it.

This was very different though. The few police cars they'd seen had been driving around like they were in a hurry to be somewhere else. They hadn't stopped to check out some of the more suspicious looking people and didn't seem to care that everyone looked scared shitless.

Something was way off with this town.

They turned another street corner and found themselves on Revello Drive. Finding your way through a city was easy when you could memorize a map in the blink of an eye, and the tracking and orientation exercises they'd been put through in Manticore were done in the forests without any street signs to tell where you were.

"So," Max started. "I guess we're here."

They were standing in front of a nice one-family house like most of the others in the neighborhood. The garden was well cared for and the lawn was neatly trimmed. It looked like most of the houses they'd passed on their way here, and it still left them with a feeling of astonishment. Everything they were used to told them that something like this couldn't exist in the USA.

Alec had been on numerous missions in Europe and Australia and had seen countries and cities untouched by the breakdown USA had suffered. Subconsciously he knew they were in Sunnydale, California, but he felt himself looking for German or French street signs and notes. He shook his head to clear the irrelevant thoughts and gestured for Max to continue up to the door.

"Ladies first."

Max flashed him a smile and together they walked up to the door and knocked hesitantly.

They both heard footsteps on the other side of the door and picked up the sound of one person's breathing and heartbeat just before the door opened.

"Can I help you with something?" A short, blonde girl asked.

She looked like she was a few years younger than them, and Alec found himself checking her out immediately. She needed to gain a few pounds and she was obviously not a natural blonde. Other than that she wasn't too bad. Nothing compared to Max, of course, but who was? He flashed her a smile and nodded politely.

"Yeah, at least I hope so," he said. "We were told to be here at 2130 today to meet some people."

Max shot a glare at him for slipping up. Way to give away a military background the first you talk.

*****

Buffy opened the door to find a young man and a woman standing on the other side. They were dressed in camouflage pants and black tops with heavy boots to round it off. They both looked to be a few years older than herself and the first thought that came to her mind was how perfect they looked. Both of them looked like they could have been pulled straight out of a fashion magazine. The guy was a total hottie, and if she wasn't mistaking herself he was checking her out! Her Slayer sense wasn't giving off any bad vibes about them, in fact she wasn't picking up anything at all from them, not even the faint, friendly feeling that told her someone was human. Still, no bad vibes probably meant they were friendly.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked, still a little on her guard as she decided it was better to play it safe.

"Yeah, at least I hope so," the guy answered with a much too pleasant voice. "We were told to be here at 2130 today to meet some people."

2130? The only people who talked like that were the ones in all the action movies Xander always liked to watch. Combine that with the clothes and she had military people for sure. Buffy's eyes narrowed as she eyed them suspiciously. "Who told you that and why?" she asked.

The girl sighed. "Now that's the 64-thousand dollar question," she said. "They said they were The Powers something," she gestured absently with her arms at the word 'something'.

"The Powers That Be, Max," the guy said with a grin. "You really need to pay attention sometimes."

The brunette smacked the guy on the shoulder. "Shut up, Alec!"

Buffy felt herself relax slightly, at the same time her hopes sank. If The Powers sent them they probably were cool, but it was so obvious that these two were into each other that she better forget everything about the guy right away. "Alec and Max huh?" she asked.

Alec nodded. "Yeah. And you are?"

"I'm Buffy."

*****

Max stifled a laugh. Who the hell named someone Buffy? This reality was just way too weird.

"Nice to meet you, Buffy," Alec said, offering his hand for her to shake, so she did. "Do you mind if we come in?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. "Something with this town seems off and I'd like to get some additional intel if we're supposed to stay here."

Max glared at him for a second before she shrugged and decided their cover was pretty much blown anyway. It wasn't like the clothes didn't give them away immediately.

Buffy nodded and stepped aside to let them in. They were both dressed like soldiers and the guy definitely talked like one, but she'd *never* imagined any actual soldiers to look like this. They could have been taken directly from the recruitment posters, she thought. 'Join the army and meet new exciting and beautiful people.' She rolled her eyes, why did she let her thoughts drift like this now?

Max and Alec entered the house and took off their boots. They had no idea how The Powers had known which clothes they would prefer to wear if they were supposed to fight but the boots had been a nice surprise at least. They were specially made for the individual soldier by Manticore contractors and fit far better than any normal boot. The steel reinforced tips were perfect if you needed to kick something or someone with a great deal of power.

They followed Buffy into the living room and were met by a small group of people who were all eying them curiously.

The room was completely silent for over a minute before the awkwardness became too much for Alec.

"Hi," he said cheerfully. "I'm Alec, and this is Max."

"You two didn't happen to escape from one of Cordy's fashion magazines huh?" Xander quipped. He could totally see that happen in Sunnydale. And the girl sure was qualified, he thought as he let his eyes wander.

The two newcomers gave him an odd look but obviously decided to ignore what he said.

Giles snapped out of whatever haze he'd been in and stood up, offering his hand to Alec.

"I am Rupert Giles," he introduced himself. "And this is Joyce, Xander and Willow. I believe you have already met Buffy," he gestured at the others as he introduced them by name.

Ok, he's a brit for sure, Max thought as she said her hellos to the people in the room. Xander and Willow were both a few years younger, probably about Buffy's age. Joyce was definitely Buffy's mother and Giles was... She frowned. That was something they'd have to find out.

Everyone in the room was eying them carefully as if they were trying to figure out if they were friends or foes. It was a natural response, she knew. She'd always done the same when she was introduced to new people back in Seattle.

Giles decided to take control of the discussion and cleared his throat. "Now that we have all been introduced properly maybe our you would be so kind as to explain who you are and why you are here?"

"Now that's a long story," Alec smirked and took a step back, leaning casually against the wall. Almost any observer would have taken him for completely relaxed and comfortable. Max knew he was ready to act in the blink of an eye and had no doubt he would do so if he felt threatened. Unknown to both the transgenics, both Giles and Buffy also picked up on that little fact.

Giles glanced briefly in Buffy's direction and caught the small shake of her head. No, they weren't any sorts of demons and she got no bad vibes from her Slayer sense.

Max and Alec, off course, both noticed the interplay between the two. What it summed up to was a very vary group of people who had no idea of whom to trust.

Joyce quickly picked up on the tense situation and did her best to diffuse it. "Does anyone want something to drink?" she asked. "Tea, coffee, or soda?"

The tension in the room lessened and she drew a deep, thankful breath. The last thing she needed was her living room trashed.

"Coffee would be great thanks," Alec said and Max nodded her approval.

"Buffy, why don't you be a dear and go fetch some sodas for Xander and Willow while I prepare some tea and coffee," Joyce said as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Buffy left to get the sodas, with a last glance in the direction of the two transgenics.

"First of all," Alec started. "Could someone tell us what day, date and year it is?"

Xander's eyes widened in surprise and Giles gave them a suspicious look before he answered. "It's the 10th of June in the year 1999."

Max gave him a warm smile. "Thanks, at least I don't have to wonder about that anymore."

Buffy and Joyce returned with the desired drinks and silence once again claimed the room. After a few, uncomfortable moments Max cleared her throat and decided to get this bitch going.

"Right," she started. "I guess we better start at the beginning."

"Yes, I suppose that would be the best," Giles said.

"Alec and I are from Seattle," Max started the story of their life. "Last night we were out with our friends at the local club when I got a call from a friend who wanted to meet with us. We went over to his place and found some people waiting for us." She closed her eyes and fought to stay calm, the knowledge of the fate their friends had was a heavy burden.

Alec took over as he quickly picked up on Max's discomfort. "The ones who were waiting for us were some people we'd been fighting for the past year. They are a part of an ancient cult of loonies determined to take over the world and they had been getting closer and closer to their goal."

"Excuse me," Giles interrupted. "What information can you give us about the cult and how do we stop them?"

"Sounds familiar."

Giles glared at Xander, willing him to be quiet.

Alec let out something like a cross between a chuckle and a sigh. "You can't stop them," he told the watcher. "When they killed Max they destroyed the last chance we had to do that."

Buffy's eyes widened in shock before they focused on Max and narrowed to slits. "If they killed you how can you be alive?" she demanded. "What kind of demon are you?"

Max levelly met her stare. "I have no idea what you're going on about *demons*, but I'm not one."

"But but but," Willow spluttered, "how can you be here if you died and if you're not a demon? And you're not a vamp because you could come in without being invited and Buffy would have sensed you."

"Whoa, slow down," Alec said, holding up his hands. "I was shot and killed and I can only assume the same thing happened to Max," he glanced questioningly in her direction and she nodded. "When we..." he paused for a second, searching for the right words. "When we 'woke up' we were in a castle or something, which promptly transformed into a courtroom."

Giles started to say something, but Alec gestured for him to hold off on the questions.

"We met with those seven really weird guys," Max took over. "At least I think they were guys," she said with a shrug and a thoughtful expression on her face. "Some of them weren't easy to tell."

"They said they were The Powers That Be," Alec continued. "They explained a lot of things for us and asked if we wanted to continue to fight 'evil'," he made big air-quotes at the last word.

"So here we are," Max finished with a twisted smile. "Just can't stay out of trouble."

Giles sat in silence for a moment as he tried to absorb their story. His eyes narrowed slightly as he couldn't get certain things to fit in. "I thought The Powers couldn't bring people back from the dead and send them back to fight?" he said.

Max and Alec shared a glance and without communicating with words decided that it was best to tell them right away.

"I don't know about that," Alec started. "But when Max died our reality had served its purpose and was lost forever. And since they seemed to think you had some problems here..." he trailed off.

Four pairs of wide-open eyes stared at them in astonishment. The two transgenics shifted uncomfortably.

"You're from another reality," Xander asked.

"Yeah," Alec shrugged. "And since our reality was created before yours I guess you can say we're from the future too," he added with a grin.

"That's sooo cool!" Willow exclaimed as she pulled herself together. "You have to tell us everything. Did you have thinking computers and flying cars and spaceships and all that cool stuff from science fiction movies?"

"Wills, slow down," Xander said. "I don't think they're fluent in Willow-babble and it's a little hard to follow you when you get excited," he smiled at his old friend.

The two X5's faces closed up as they thought of their own reality and time. "No," Alec said silently. "It wasn't like in the movies." No, not at all like the movies.

Joyce quickly picked up on the darkened mood and decided that a change of subject would be a good idea. "If you... umm... died," she said with an embarrassed expression, "last night you must be hungry now. Do you want something to eat?"

Giles had, despite all his knowledge and experience, been the one to take the longest to recover from the shock the 'alternate reality' news caused. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes and stood up. "I think we could all use some refreshments now," he said. "A few sandwiches would be fabulous and I could really use a drink."

Buffy chuckled as she watched her watcher trying to compose himself. She then turned to Max and asked, "so are you a Slayer too? I mean, I don't get any vibes from you but I guess that could be 'cause of the whole reality thing."

Max gave her a blank look. "What's a Slayer?"

Giles cleared his throat and opened his mouth to answer.

Buffy leaned forward and whispered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "He loves this part."

Her Watcher gave her an annoyed look. "One girl in every generation is blessed with the speed and strength to fight vampires and other demons. She is the Vampire Slayer, the Chosen One."

Max and Alec looked at each other before simultaneously turning to the Englishman. "Vampires?" they both chorused.

"Yes," the Watcher calmly responded. "And demons."

"So you're fighting vampires and demons?" Max asked. "That's what this is all about?"

"Like in Dracula and Blade?" Alec asked.

"Nah," Xander broke in. "Real life vamps aren't as smart as the ones in the movies," he grinned.

*****

Marcus stepped out onto the veranda at the rear of the house and took in the sights of the night. Nocturnal insects were buzzing around and he spotted a cat chasing a mouse at the other side of the garden. The house was old but still in very good shape. He'd bought it himself almost seventy years earlier when he'd first learned about the location of the Hellmouth. It was situated on the outskirts of Sunnydale and almost as far from the actual Hellmouth you could come and still be within the city limits. It didn't bother him though. The slightly lower influence the Hellmouth had in this part of the town meant there were less fledglings and other trash disturbing the peace.

He'd known from the beginning that sooner or later the Slayer would be sent to the Hellmouth. It was just too dangerous to leave it unprotected. When he'd first moved here and bought the house he'd been ecstatic. Soon all the planning and the long wait would be over and he would finally have another Slayer. The feeling of euphoria the upcoming ritual and the Hellmouth gave him had quickly faded when he found out who was running the town. Mayor Wilkins had most of the underground working for him and kept a tight lock on everything. It wasn't hard to understand why so few had learned about the Hellmouth when the ones who ran the town did their best to keep it a secret. Combine that with the natural influence of the Hellmouth and no human would notice anything wrong.

Unfortunately, this also meant that he would have to postpone his plans. For one thing, the Mayor was powerful, and facing off against him would be risky. Aside from that the Slayer wasn't present and would probably not be for some time to come. He'd left the town after only a few weeks with a feeling of loss, but had kept a close eye on everything that was going on.

Now the Mayor was gone for good and there was a nice added bonus too. There wasn't just one, but *two* Slayers at the Hellmouth. And one of them was in a coma at the Sunnydale Hospital. His plans had originally only involved one Slayer. Having two of them present was even better. The second Slayer would be easy to collect at the hospital and taking the other one out would only be moderately difficult with the proper planning.

And after two thousand years, how to create plans was something he knew.

*****

"Vampires," Alec exhaled. "Man, this reality is just too weird."

"You mean you don't have any vamps in your reality?" Buffy asked. The two transgenics shook their heads.

"I see," Giles said. "I was wondering why The Powers didn't send us another Slayer. It would seem to be the natural response."

"Oh-kay," Max said slowly. "So how do you fight a vampire and how do you find and recognize them?"

Giles started to clean his glasses as he prepared to give his speech about vampires. "Vampires are demons inhabiting a human host," he started. "A vampire is created by draining the blood from a human being and then feeding the dying person vampire blood. Vampires are soulless and most of them take pleasure in inflicting pain and terror. They need blood to survive and most commonly get this by feeding from and killing humans." He paused for a second as the two newcomers winced at the mental image that description produced. "Vampires are inhumanly strong and fast and heal wounds at a much quicker pace than any human, except the Slayer."

"Sunlight, beheadings and a stake to the heart kill them. Holy water and holy symbols hurt them," Buffy said, bored with the longwinded speech.

Giles gave her an irritated look but didn't say anything.

"So," Alec said slowly. "A vampire is a demon living in a dead human?"

"Yeah, their hearts don't beat and they don't need to breathe, so you can't strangle them," Xander said. "Which is lucky for Deadboy," he added under his breath. The comment wasn't loud enough to be heard by anyone but Willow. Well, it wouldn't have been if three of the others in the room hadn't had exceptional hearing.

Buffy glared at the boy and the two transgenics raised their eyebrows.

Suddenly something clicked in Alec's mind and his head snapped around to look at Max. "I *knew* there was something wrong with those guys at the cemetery," he said. "I mean, except for the whole yellow eyes and ugly ridges deal. They didn't have a heartbeat."

Max eyes widened in realization. "Oh," she said. "At least that means they weren't..." she trailed off, leaving the last part of the sentence unspoken. Alec knew what she was going to say anyway and nodded. At least they weren't transgenics, which was a relief to know.

"Wait, do you mean you met some vampires before you got here?" Buffy asked.

Alec nodded. "Yeah, we got jumped by three guys and a girl when we left the cemetery where The Powers dropped us off. I knew something was off with them but I had no idea what."

"What happened?" Willow asked wide-eyed. If they were jumped by four vamps and got away something must have happened.

Max shrugged. "Knocked 'em out and left 'em there."

Giles looked at the two transgenics, baffled. "You knocked four vampires unconscious?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it was no big," Max said, not understanding what the big deal was. Sure, vampires could take a little more beating than a human and it probably hurt if they managed to hit you, but they were stupid and had no idea how to fight. And compared to Familiars and other transgenics they were so far down the scale they barely registered as worthy opponents. At least not the ones they fought in the cemetery, she mentally added. They might have stumbled on some really stupid ones.

"How did you do that?" Xander asked with a little awe. The only ones he'd seen knock out vampires before were Buffy and Faith, or another vampire like Angel.

"We have some experience with fighting," Alec said.

*****

The young brunette had lain motionless in her bed for several weeks; her only company the machines that monitored her body's vital functions. The doctors had no hope she'd ever wake up and after the first few weeks the care for her had became entirely routine. The nurses checked in at set times and made sure everything was looking good before leaving to perform their other duties. So when the monotone sounds of the heartbeat suddenly changed to a quicker pace and the girl began to stir in her bed, no one was there to notice.

Faith's mouth opened slightly and a soft whimper escaped her lips. Her head began to shift slightly from side to side as if she was shaking her head in her sleep. Tears began to leak out from under her closed eyelids and roll down her pale cheeks.

"No... Please no."

A nurse passed by the door and glanced quickly at the bed only to see the comatose girl shift in her bed. She quickly called for a doctor and they raced into the room.

The girl's whimpers got louder and louder as they checked her vitals and she started trashing in her bed.

The nurse tried to hold her down while the doctor finished his quick check and was totally unprepared when she was suddenly flung through the room and landed in a heap at the door.

"NOOO!!!" Faith woke up with a cry of anguish and slumped down on the bed as unconsciousness claimed her again.

-----


	3. Chapter Two

_Disclaimer:_ Disclaimer for all of the story can be found before the Prologue. 

_A/N:_ Writing has been slow lately. My muse refuses to talk to me. 

Many thanks to Infie, Maia and Merlin The Enchanter.

Please let me know what you think.

-----

**_

Chapter Two

_**

The shrill sounds of the ringing phone echoed throughout the large room. The man hurried toward the phone with dark eyes, clearly annoyed that someone would interrupt him.

"Hello," he answered. "This is Quentin Travers speaking."

"Hello Mr. Travers," an American voice said through the phone. "I'm sorry to disturb you at this hour but the instructions said to call you immediately."

"Very well, what is it that is so important?"

"My name is Dr. Green and I'm calling from Sunnydale Memorial hospital. I'm calling to let you know that our patient, Faith Williams, has woken up from her coma."

Travers couldn't help but drawing a shocked breath. "I see. Thank you for calling," he said and hung up the phone. So the rogue Slayer was awake and would soon be out where they could get to her. He rubbed his hands in anticipation. Plans needed to be set in motion and calls had to be made.

*****

Buffy looked curiously at the two newcomers. "Some experience, huh?" she asked. "You'll need a little more than *some* experience to knock out four vamps y'know."

"Quite," Giles said. "May I ask what kind of experience you have?"

"Sure," Max said with a shrug. "I've got about nine years of martial arts training and Alec has another twelve." She glanced in Alec's direction and grinned. "But I can still kick his ass any day of the week," she added.

Alec rolled his eyes. "One day I'm gonna go full out on you when we spar and pull you out of your little fantasy world."

Max had narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to verbally destroy him when something made her hesitate. It was the tone with which Alec had said it, she decided. It didn't sound like his normal self, bragging about something. It sounded more like a promise, spoken by someone who knew he could do it and didn't have to prove it. Before she could get any further in her musings the others in the room spoke up and she focused her attention on them.

"Wow!" Xander exclaimed. "Do you give lessons?" he quickly asked. Maybe they would do it, since Buffy and Giles refused. They'd have to see that it was safer for him to know how to fight since there was no way he'd just walk away.

"Wait a minute," Willow said. "How can you have been training for that long when you don't seem to be much older than us? How old *are* you, anyway?"

"Yes," Giles said. "That would seem like a valid question to ask."

"I'm twenty three and Max is twenty one," Alec answered. "We have that much training because we started very early." It became harder and harder to keep things hidden from these guys. They knew how to ask questions and if he and Max were to win their trust, they would have to be honest. At least for the most part.

Buffy's eyes widened and she shared a quick look with Giles. "That would mean you started training when you were *two* years old?" she asked in disbelief.

"Who in God's name would force their children to start training at that age?" Giles added. He saw the faces of the two newcomers close up.

"We never had any parents," Max said. "Not like you at least."

"Don't be disappointed because of that," Xander muttered.

"But how? What?" Willow tried to find the right question to ask.

Max and Alec shared a look and Alec nodded faintly to answer the unspoken question.

"We were born to be soldiers," Max said. "We grew up on a military base and were taught to be soldiers." She closed her eyes and pushed away some of the darker memories that always surfaced when she thought about her childhood. "I was there until I escaped when I was nine years old." She opened her eyes again to look at the stunned group in front of her. "Alec didn't escape until I burned the place down a little more than a year ago."

"Oh dear Lord," Giles breathed. How could anyone do that to something like that to children? The pain he'd seen in Max's face as she told them was something he'd never forget. He found himself searching for other signs, and his gaze finally settled on their eyes. Those eyes looked old. Like they'd seen far too much in the few years they'd lived.

Buffy's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the revelation. Soldiers fought in wars. What if they were like Faith and had killed people? "So you've killed people?" she asked.

The two transgenics turned their heads to look at the small blonde and could clearly see the look of disgust on her face. Alec mentally shook his head sadly. Yet another innocent who thought the world was black and white. Either you were good or you were bad. Good guys never did anything bad and if you did, you were automatically a bad guy.

"We were trained to kill," Max said in an emotionless voice. "Told from the time we were old enough to understand speech that our only purpose in life was to follow orders." She took in the mixed looks on the faces in the room. Buffy was clearly disgusted but some of the others appeared to be more in a state of shock. "When you're seven years old and all you know is that you are supposed to follow orders and kill you don't ask questions. Especially not when the alternative is to be dragged away and dissected to find out why the 'X-5 unit was defective.'" She almost spat out the last part of the sentence.

"Dissected?" Willow asked with a weak voice.

Alec nodded affirmatively. "When a tool doesn't work as it's supposed to, you take it apart to find out why," he said with a shrug. "That's all we were to them, tools." He turned around and bared his neck to the others. He could hear Max's sharp intake of breath at his side and saw her shocked face when he glanced in her direction. "They need to know, Max," he said, reassuringly.

Giles was once again the first one to react. "A barcode?" he asked.

"Why do you have a barcode tattoo on your neck?" Buffy asked a split second later.

Max locked her eyes with the smaller girl. "It's not a tattoo," she said in a tight voice. "It's genetically encoded into our DNA and can't be removed. That's how you label a tool."

The room fell silent, the two transgenics waiting for some kind of reaction and the Scoobies in a state of shock.

"Oh Goddess!" Willow exclaimed as she bounced up from the chair and threw her arms around Max. "That must have been awful for you," she almost sobbed.

Max shot a pleading look at Alec, having no idea how to react in a situation like this. Alec shrugged and smirked at her. "If you want to we can trade places," he said with a grin. "I'm more used to having girls throw themselves at me."

The half panicked expression on Max's face and Alec's joke was enough to make the room erupt in laughter for a second before the Sunnydalians remembered why the mood had been so low in the first place.

"It's water under the bridge," Alec said quietly. "It's not something I'd wish anyone to go through but it's over now. No need to get stuck in the past."

"But you killed people!" Buffy burst out. It wasn't the most sensible thing to say at the moment and the people in the room froze and turned as one to face her.

"Buffy!" Joyce exclaimed.

"The world isn't black and white, little girl," Alec said, locking his eyes with the Slayer. "Maybe when you've seen enough you'll understand that."

Buffy opened her mouth to protest but the look she got from her Watcher stopped her dead in her tracks.

"He is right, Buffy," Giles said. "We should leave this subject for now and proceed to more important matters."

Buffy slumped back on the couch with a sour look on her face. How could it be okay to kill people? She just couldn't understand how anyone could think that.

"Right," Giles continued after a few seconds of silence. "It is getting late and I believe we all need to rest some after all that has happened today." He turned to the two transgenics. "Do you two have anywhere to stay tonight?"

Alec and Max shared a look. "I don't sleep much," Max replied. "But Alec gets grumpy if he doesn't get his eight hours of shut eye."

Alec glared at her. "I do *not* get… grumpy!"

"They could stay with me tonight," Willow said hopefully. "My parents are out of town so I've got the whole house for myself." Despite everything she'd heard she was intrigued by Max and Alec and wanted to know more about them. Not only were they from another reality but also from the future!

"That is an excellent idea," Giles said and sent a questioning look at the two transgenics.

The two of them shared a glance and nodded. "If it's not too much trouble," Alec said.

"No, no trouble at all," Willow quickly assured them. "But, ummm.. we need Xander to drive us," she added with a questioning look at her oldest friend.

"Sure Wills, no problem," Xander said. He wasn't sure if he liked the idea of them staying at Willow's house but she seemed confident. And he had to admit that he didn't get any evil vibes off the two newcomers.

"Very well," Giles said. "I believe Buffy can take the night off from patrolling tonight. We should meet again tomorrow to discuss what Whistler informed us about, but for now I bid you good night."

A chorus of 'good nights' later, the group emptied the Summers' living room and left to go to their own permanent or temporary homes.

"Okay," Xander started. "You two keep out of sight in the backseat while Max rides in the front with me. I could always use the extra credit that would give me if someone saw us."

"Xander!" Willow exclaimed, giving her grinning friend a shocked look.

The ride over to the Rosenberg's home was quiet. Max and Alec took the opportunity to study the town as they drove through it. Willow and Xander were both deep in thought, not paying much attention to what was happening around them. Luckily for Xander the streets were mostly empty and the traffic was light, not causing any problems. He waved goodbye to his old friend and the two newcomers as he dropped them off and then went home.

He sighed as he climbed down the stairs to the basement. It looked like he would have to postpone his road trip. If something big was coming down he wanted to be here and help with it. He'd have to remember to ask Alec if he could help him with some training tomorrow. The gang had gotten two new members and he was still the only 'normal' one of them all.

*****

Willow gave the two soldiers a quick tour of the house and showed them to the guest room. She frowned mentally. Was that how she thought about them now? As soldiers? Oh well…

When they were settled down and had grabbed a quick snack she fired up her computer to spend some quality time on the 'net. She randomly surfed a few Wiccan websites and checked a few message boards to see if there was any news on the hacking front. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when a voice suddenly sounded from behind her.

"Can you get into the records and find out where someone lives?" Max asked.

Willow spun around in her chair, knocking a pile of books to the floor as she did so.

Max reacted instinctively and blurred over to the desk to catch the books before they landed. It wasn't until she saw the redhead's wide eyes staring back at her as she realized what she'd done.

Alec let out a loud sigh from where he stood, casually leaning against the doorframe. "So much for keeping that a secret. Great job Max."

Max attempted a glare but found that she couldn't hold on to it and it soon changed to a slightly guilty expression.

"Wha... what are you?" Willow asked nervously. What was it really she'd let into her house?

Alec sighed again. "The barcode isn't the only thing they did when they messed with our DNA. We're transgenics."

Willow looked at him puzzled.

"Chimeras," Alec clarified.

"Oh," Willow managed to get out, her eyes growing large. "That's, that's… wow!"

"They tried to engineer the perfect soldier," Max said. "We were never treated as humans because in their eyes we weren't. We were just soldiers."

"Oh…"

"We'd appreciate if you wouldn't tell anyone about it," Alec said, noticing that she seemed to take the revelation rather well. "Not everyone can accept what we are," he added, his eyes darkening with memories from their last life.

"Oh…" Willow said again. She paused for a moment before she continued. "I don't think it'll be a problem. Not for us at least," she added. "We're used to much weirder things."

Alec raised his eyebrows. "Like what?"

"Well, I'm a witch and my boyfriend is a werewolf."

Silence.

"Witch?" Alec said.

"Werewolf?" Max added.

"Umm, yeah. I guess you're not used to that either?"

"Nah," Max sighed.

"Okay," Willow said slowly. "But as I said I don't think there will be any problems." A smile spread over her face. "We're pretty good at keeping secrets."

Alec shrugged. "All right, just don't tell them right away. It'll be more fun to surprise them," he finished with a grin.

Willow beamed at them. "So who was it you wanted to find?"

"His name is Logan Cale," Max said. "He should be about ten years old but I have no idea where he lives."

"All right," Willow said, turning to face her computer again. "I recognize that name from somewhere but I can't remember where from."

She worked at her computer in silence for a few minutes with the two transgenics looking over her shoulders. The computer was fairly old compared to the ones they were used to, but not as obsolete as one would probably have thought. Computer manufacturers and software developers had been literally extinguished by the Pulse and the newest computers they'd seen were only ten years into the future in this reality. Or something like that, Alec thought. This alternate reality crap was giving him a headache.

"I knew I'd seen the name before!" Willow exclaimed, drawing the attention to the screen in front of her. "Logan Cale, future heir to the Cale Industries. Born May 16 1983 in Seattle, Washington. Currently serving time in a juvenile prison in Colorado for attempted rape and sexual harassment of a minor."

Max's jaw hit the floor and she followed shortly behind as her legs gave out under her. "What!?" she managed to get out.

Alec took a long look at the screen, turned his gaze to Max and then back to the screen again. Finally he burst out in a roar of laughter. Oh God, this was just too much!

Max's jaw was working frantically but no sounds would pass her lips. What the hell was up with this reality!? And how could Logan be that old?

"Oh man, I always knew he liked young girls but this…" Alec managed to say before giving in to another fit of laughter.

The Wiccan looked puzzled between the two transgenics, having absolutely no idea what was happening.

Finally Max snapped out of her haze and her eyes zeroed in on Alec, who was wiping tears from his own eyes. She flipped to her feet in one smooth motion and kicked out with her right foot, aiming straight for Alec's groin. Alec's hands blurred as he caught her foot only inches away from its target and held it in an iron grip.

"A knee was enough Max," he said in a low voice. "I'm rather attached to that part of my body and I know one day you'd regret crippling me like that." He gave her a gentle push backwards and grinned at her. "Come on Maxie. You'll have to admit that Logan claiming to be twenty eight was a little far-fetched don't ya think?"

"But, but," Max sputtered.

"Maybe he had your obsession with asses?" Alec suggested. "I mean, I could really picture him getting a good look at your behind as you jumped out that window and then…"

"Shut up!"

Alec caught her wrists as they reached for his neck and simply let himself fall backwards with her on top of him as she launched herself at him. A quick roll and a twist later and he was the one on top, pinning her arms above her head with one of his hands. "Now this is new," Alec grinned. "But I'm already enjoying it."

Max found herself unable to move as she was pinned to the floor. She looked up at the man on top of her and swallowed, suddenly unsure if she really wanted to move.

Alec caught the change and the grin disappeared. The seconds dragged out and neither of them moved. A polite cough from the other side of the room startled them and they both scrambled to get to their feet.

"Umm," Willow said, the color of her face matching her hair. "Want me to show you to your room?"

"I'm not really tired," Max said. "I don't sleep much."

"Didn't think you would," Willow muttered under her breath, and then turned three shades redder as Alec burst out laughing again. Damn supernatural hearing!

*****

When Giles finally got home he noticed the blinking light on his answering machine, indicating he had a message. Wondering who would call him this late he pressed the button to play the message.

"Good day Mr. Giles, my name is Dr. Green. You wanted to be informed if there were any changes in the condition of a Faith Williams and I'm calling to let you know that she woke up from her coma earlier tonight. She is unconscious at the moment but no longer comatose. If you need to contact me you can do so through the hospital. Good bye."

Giles stared at the answering machine in stunned silence. Whistler had said they'd bring Faith back but somehow it hadn't really registered just what it would take to do that. The doctors had said there was a *very* slim chance that Faith would ever recover, and now she was awake just like that. He shook his head sadly. If only the blasted Powers could use their powers in the good fight and not only to screw up their lives.

Sighing, he walked out to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea before going to bed. He'd just finished making the tea and had every intention to enjoy it fully when the phone rang. Muttering a Ripper'ish curse he got up from the couch to answer the phone.

He lifted the receiver but didn't even have time to answer before the voice on the other end started to speak.

"Rupert, it's me. I don't have time to talk but you should know that Travers has called a full meeting with the High Council as soon as possible. I overheard one of the guards saying that lots of weapons were removed from the store and sent to Heathrow just a few minutes ago. I'm not sure what's going on but I think one of the Wet Work teams just was deployed. You know just as well as I do what that means…"

The phone went dead with a soft 'click' but it took almost a minute before Giles acknowledged it. He knew that voice; there was no way to mistake it for someone else. He still had a few friends in the Council and he thanked his lucky star that at least one of them felt the need to inform him. So the Council was coming for Faith, he thought. That was really not what they needed at the moment. Besides, now that he knew what had really been going on with Faith, he wasn't sure that Buffy's intention to hand her over to the Council was the right thing to do.

The Council's team couldn't be here for another twelve hours and that would give him a little time to work with. First they needed to get Faith out of the hospital.

*****

Marcus looked out over his assembled children. He'd built up a rather impressive family over the years and if they'd wanted to wreck havoc on the world they could have done a lot of damage. However, that was the way of the weak and incompetent. The true Masters would never sink as low as the common trash. The moment he'd been hoping would come for over 500 years, and known would come ever since he'd found out about the ritual, was coming closer and closer.

He'd actually never been to South America himself. Traveling overseas was hard for vampires before the age of passenger flights, and after that invention he just hadn't got around to it. He'd done all the research he needed though, and was confident that everything would work out fine.

It had been a stroke of sheer luck to find the old book in a warehouse in Spain those many years ago. It had been brought back from the new lands by one of the merchants and had been hidden right away because of its content. That the book hadn't been burned on sight was something that had amazed him for centuries.

With the firm grip the Church had on everything back then, a book mentioning vampires should have been destroyed immediately. Thankfully it hadn't, and it had been in his possession ever since he'd found it. The effort to translate it had taken many years and without the unwilling help of several human professors he was sure he would never have succeeded. The feeling of destiny he'd had when he first saw the book had been dead on, and the translated text was more than worth the wait.

The ritual described in one part of the book required blood. Lots and lots of blood. The more powerful the better – and he knew the Slayer had the most powerful blood of them all. Some of the professors that had helped to translate the book had been shocked to learn that many of the human sacrifices the Indian tribes in South America had performed were dedicated to vampires. The rituals they needed required blood, and a willing sacrifice was always better than an unwilling one.

The tribes had worshipped the vampires as gods and the rituals had helped them to live up to their reputation. The blood of a normal human was fairly weak and the vampires had been forced to perform the ritual several times every year to keep the effect, but with the blood from two Slayers the result might very well be permanent. It was a *very* pleasant thought.

After ordering two of his children to find the current master vampire in the town and interrogate him, he dismissed the rest of his family.

With a little luck and a lot of planning he would soon reap the benefits of half a millennia of waiting.

It had been almost two thousand years since the last time, but if everything went well he would feel the sunlight shine on his face before the week was over.

*****

Giles pulled up in front of the Summers house for the second time that night. He half ran to the door and knocked loudly, not sure if the occupants were asleep already. Half a minute later Buffy appeared, dressed in a robe over her pajamas.

"Giles, what's wrong?"

"Buffy, please get dressed. We need to go to the hospital."

"What? Why? Did something happen to Xander or Willow?" Buffy asked worriedly.

"No, as far as I know they are both well. It's Faith."

"Faith?"

"Yes," Giles sighed. "She woke up from her coma and I just found out that the Council sent a team to capture her."

Buffy shrugged indifferently. "So what? Let 'em have her."

Giles' eyes narrowed. "I don't think you understand what we are facing here. We need every bit of help we can get... and Faith would indeed be a big help."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'd help the über-vamp," Buffy muttered.

Giles gave up trying to be polite. "Get dressed and come with me. We're going to get Faith out of the hospital and she's going to stay right here under our protection until we can convince the Council to back off."

Buffy opened her mouth to protest but Giles interrupted her before she could get a word out.

"And you should keep in mind what Whistler said. It could just as well have been you in Faith's position. Would you want us to just abandon you if the situation was the opposite? You resent her for what she did against her will. Try to imagine how she must feel." He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Now get dressed!" Ripper snarled.

Buffy's mouth worked for a few seconds before she spun around and disappeared into the house. A few minutes later she returned, fully dressed and carrying a bag of weapons. "It's dark outside," she said, answering Giles unspoken question. The weapons weren't for Faith but for whatever they might run into on their way to or from the hospital.

She didn't have to like what they were doing but she had to admit that he had a point. She didn't want to think about how she would feel if the situation had been reversed.

The drive over to the hospital went without incidents and they soon found themselves arguing with a nurse about moving the patient. Giles showed her some well-forged papers, leftovers from his days as a Council employee, and they were allowed into Faith's room.

The dark haired Slayer had regained consciousness a short time earlier and wasn't in the best shape. Her reaction when Giles and Buffy showed up on her doorstep was predictable. She paled and her face showed an expression of absolute horror.

"No."

The whispered word was so faint that even Buffy almost didn't hear it.

Giles took one look at Faith and turned to Buffy. "Please wait outside, Buffy. I must speak with Faith alone."

Buffy cast a last glance at the terrified Slayer and nodded shortly before disappearing out the door.

Giles pulled up a chair beside Faith's bed and sat down. The dark Slayer refused to meet his eyes and looked straight up at the roof with a distant gaze.

"Faith," Giles said softly. "Faith, please look at me."

"No." Once again the whispered word was barely audible.

"Please Faith, just listen to me. We know what happened wasn't your fault. We know you had no choice and I can't even begin to express how sorry I am for what you had to go through. The others understand as well and so will Buffy when she has had some time to calm down and think it through. She is trying to deal with the implications of what we were told and the fact that it could very well have been her in your position."

Faith turned her head slowly to look at the Watcher with a questioning look.

"The balance demon Whistler came to us earlier today and explained what had happened," Giles explained. "From what I understand your efforts were exemplary, almost resisting the powers of the most powerful beings in existence."

The questioning look disappeared and gave room for an expression of sheer shock.

"The Powers That Be were forced to let it happen," Giles sighed. "Two Slayers disrupted the balance between Good and Evil and the only solution was to have one Slayer switch sides for a time. We are now facing an unexpected threat and The Powers recognized the need to have two Slayers on their side again." Giles took a deep breath. "Faith, we want you to come home with us. We need your help and we believe you should be given a second chance."

Faith stared at him silently for several long seconds. "Really?" she asked in the same faint voice, only this time there were traces of hope in it.

"Yes, Faith," Giles confirmed. "The Council, however, doesn't care about anything but controlling the Slayer," he added, his eyes darkening. "Which is why we need you to come with us before they can capture you. They have already sent a team."

Giles got up and walked over to the door, motioning for Buffy to come in.

The two Slayers looked at each other, the tension thick in the room. Finally Buffy broke the silence. "I don't think I can ever forget what you did, but I'm willing to try to accept it."

Faith looked down before nodding faintly.

Giles returned shortly with a nurse and a wheelchair. With the right papers to show, the trio left the hospital a few minutes later. Giles helped the still weak Slayer into the back seat of the car and then drove away.

Faith sat silently, still not sure what to make of everything. She'd woken up with memories of doing horrible things, and she couldn't understand how she could have done anything like that. All the blood and death. When she'd first regained consciousness she'd been overwhelmed by what she'd remembered doing and her body had just shut down again. Now she'd regained some of her strength and she'd heard what Jeeves had said. The same higher power that had given her the best gift in her life had also done this to her. It was almost too much to comprehend. She'd killed people! And all that she'd done to Buffy and the others. Threatening Willow and… Oh God!

"Xander," she whispered, horrified.

"He is quite all right," Giles assured her. "I believe he will be happy to see you again," he added with a faint smile.

"I can't see him," Faith almost panicked. "How could I face him after what I did to him?" Her voice broke down as she finally gave in to the tears.

Buffy looked intently at the dark Slayer. Her mind was a turmoil of different thoughts and feelings. She wanted to be angry at Faith but at the same time she felt sorry for her. She wanted to hate her for what she'd done but the other Slayer was also the closest thing she'd ever had to a sister.

When they got home she was still moving on some kind of autopilot, barely registering what was happening around her. They got Faith settled in one of the guest rooms and Giles left to get some much needed sleep.

Faith fell asleep almost immediately and Buffy sat for almost half an hour, just staring at her sister Slayer, trying to understand what she felt.

*****

Bloody stupid civilian morons! Damn Travers and his stupid friends.

Stuart MacIntyre was almost shaking in frustration as he gripped the armrests of the chair tightly. They were on their way to America, currently somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. 

It was happening too fast for his liking. Travers had barely got the call informing him that the Slayer had woke up before he'd ordered MacIntyre's team sent. He looked out over the nine soldiers sitting in the passenger area of the Council's transport plane. They looked calm and composed; some of them appeared to be sleeping. He wished he could share their confidence and get some rest himself but he had a sinking feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.

Their information was sparse at best and completely lacking on some points. The timeframe they were working within was so tight it made sure they wouldn't be able to take their time to do the job the way he wanted. Travers had no idea how to run an operation like this and he was so obsessed with capturing the Slayer that he refused to listen to reason. Thus the deadline was 24 hours after they had landed in Sunnydale, and that was only a third of the time Stuart would have preferred.

His men were among the best, though, and they had pulled off seemingly impossible missions before. Both before and after they'd begun working for the Council.

Stuart had been a Sergeant in the Royal Marines before his eyes had been opened to the real under-world. He had been contacted by representatives of the Council and it hadn't taken him long to decide to take them up on their offer. Since he was the oldest member on the team and the one with most experience leading a small unit of soldiers, he'd been given command over the team. He was also the soldier with the least specialized training. The nine members were mostly recruited from various Special Forces, including for example the British SAS and German GSG9.

His men were among the best trained soldiers in the world and he still couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom.

*****

"Mind if I join you?" Alec asked as he sat down beside Max on the top of the roof of the Rosenberg's house.

Max glanced quickly in his direction and shrugged. "Sure."

They sat in silence for several minutes, both lost in thought.

"It's hard to understand," Max broke the silence. "Everything and everyone we knew is gone."

"Yeah," Alec agreed with a sigh. "Though I think it's easier for me. You had more friends and more of a family than I had." And the only thing I really wanted in my life is still with me, he added mentally.

"Maybe, but you still had people who cared about you." And you still have, she finished silently.

"I'm used to losing friends and moving on."

Max turned her head slowly and found Alec looking out over the dark town. "You shouldn't have to be," she said, trying to push away the pain the memories caused. "No one should."

"Life is pain, get used to it," Alec quoted.

"Shouldn't that be my line?" Max mock-glared at him. Her expression changed to a sober one. "Besides I don't like that option. Maybe we could get something else but pain out of our lives now."

"Yeah, right."

"Come on Alec, why're you so negative all of a sudden. What happened to the 'I'm always all right' guy I knew?"

Alec turned to face her with a twinkle in his eyes. "Brought you out of the negative thinking you were caught up in at least," he said with a grin. "Let's go in again. I need some sleep... and if you're really nice I'll let you share my bed."

"In your dreams, pretty boy!" And too often in mine as well.

They climbed down from the roof an in through the window. As they were about to part ways and head to their respective beds Max stopped Alec with a hand on his shoulder.

"What are we going to tell the others? About us, I mean."

Alec shrugged. "Guess we'll tell them the truth. We're not forced to stay here and if they can't accept it we can just move on." Even as he said it they both knew it wasn't true. They wouldn't be able to leave and let the humans face the threats of Sunnydale alone.

"Yeah," Max reluctantly agreed. "Shall we spring it to them during a sparring session or something?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes. "Could be fun to watch their reaction."

Alec grinned. "Sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow."

"'night."

*****

Willow woke up around 9.30, feeling refreshed and not the least guilty for sleeping in. After a quick shower she dressed and headed for the kitchen.

And stopped dead in her tracks as she saw Max sitting on a chair, staring at the open refrigerator with a slightly vacant look in her eyes.

"Where did ya get all the food from?" the transgenic asked with a frown.

The redheaded Wiccan gave her a puzzled look. "We bought it at the supermarket of course."

"Supermarket?"

Willow paused, trying to figure out how to explain a supermarket when it suddenly struck her how weird the conversation was. Surely they must have had something like supermarkets where the two transgenics came from. "How did you get food in Seattle?"

Max shrugged. "Bought it at the market mostly or from farmers who came in to the town to sell their stuff." A smile spread over her face. "I even got my hands on a chicken once!"

"A chicken?"

"Yeah. One of those birds y'know?" Max looked strangely at the witch.

Willow frowned. "Of course I know what a chicken is. I'm trying to figure out what's so special about you getting one?"

"Oh, it was the first one I managed to get in about 4 years. Food wasn't easy to come by," she added with another shrug.

Willow just stared at the dark haired girl. After almost a minute she nearly jumped out of her socks when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey Willow, are you all right?" Alec asked.

The Wiccan shook herself out of her daze and assured the transgenics that she was ok. "Max just explained the food situation where you're from. I think I'll have to make you a huge breakfast to make up for it."

"I could eat," Max said.

"Sounds great," Alec agreed. "But we'll have to find a way to pay you back for it later."

"Great!" Willow exclaimed and bounced over to the stove. "And don't worry about paying me back. My parents pay for everything anyway."

The two transgenics shared a glance. "Right," Alec said.

"If you say so," Max added.

No way were they were going to live on charity, whatever Willow said.

*****

Faith woke up with a scream from her latest nightmare. She'd had her hands clenched around Xander's throat and was slowly choking the life out of him. Only this time Angel hadn't shown up and stopped her before she could kill him. She had been staring down on his dead body when she woke up.

A few seconds later there was a soft knock on the door and Buffy entered.

"You all right?" the blonde Slayer asked.

"Five by five."

Buffy sighed. "If you don't want to talk about it I won't stress it."

"Good."

"But you really should talk with someone," Buffy added.

Faith closed her eyes. "Maybe later."

Realizing she wouldn't get any more out of the dark Slayer, Buffy decided to talk to Giles about it later instead. "So, up for some breakfast?"

Faith looked in surprise at the blonde. She couldn't remember when someone had last offered her a meal and hadn't immediately set some conditions for giving it to her. Her eyes narrowed. Maybe those would come later, when she'd been lured into a false sense of security.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you and neither is anyone else. I did some thinking last night and I want to try to work with you." She wasn't entirely sure she wanted anything more than that, but she was leaning in that direction. She didn't have many friends and she had a feeling that Faith had even less.

Faith nodded slowly and started to get out of the bed. Buffy waved in the direction of a chair where she'd laid out some clothes. "I'm not sure if they'll fit you but if you want to you can borrow them for now. I'll be in the kitchen. Just come down when you're ready."

Breakfast was awkward, with Buffy and Joyce trying to talk to Faith who mostly replied with single words or small grunts. The three of them were just finishing their breakfasts when the doorbell rang.

*****

After an enormous breakfast Max and Alec helped Willow to clean up. Max was still in shock, used to never having enough to eat and definitely not having food of this quality.

Alec had grown up at Manticore and had always had enough food, but the scientifically perfect meals at Manticore had never tasted like something you wanted to eat. The past year he'd been out in the world he had faced the same problems as Max, though his frequent black-market deals assured that he at least had money to buy food with.

"Thanks, Willow," Max said for the umpteenth time.

"Max, it's ok," Willow assured her with a smile. She still couldn't believe how anyone could have a reaction like this to normal food. It was like they'd never seen a proper meal before, which, she reluctantly admitted, seemed to be the case. The reality they'd left behind seemed to be anything but a nice place. Maybe she could get them to tell her more later.

"Any plans for today?" Alec asked.

"Well, I guess we'll talk more to Giles and Buffy," Willow said. "And Xander of course," she added.

"What's their deal by the way?" Max asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Buffy is a… Slayer? You're a witch. What are Giles and Xander?"

"Xander is my oldest bestest friend," Willow beamed. "He's just a normal guy and he can't fight very well, but he helps us anyway."

"Hasn't Buffy taught him how to fight?" Alec asked, surprised.

"Umm, no," Willow said hesitantly. "He'd just put himself in more danger if he knew how to fight."

The two transgenics shared a look. That was some very warped reasoning there. If Xander helped them even if he didn't know how to fight, wouldn't he be in more danger than if he could fight? In silent agreement they decided to correct that mistake as soon as they could.

"And Giles?"

"Oh! Giles is Buffy's Watcher. He's a representative for the Watcher's Council," she frowned. "Or at least he was until they fired him for caring about Buffy."

The two transgenics stilled. "What's the Watcher's Council and why would they fire someone for caring?" Alec asked slowly.

"The Council is an organization that watches the Slayer. The Watcher trains the Slayer and helps her with research and to prepare her for what she'll fight. The Council appoints a Watcher to the Slayer."

"And why would they fire him?" Max repeated the question.

Willow felt a familiar surge of anger when she thought back on what had led to Giles being fired. "They want to control the Slayer and Buffy was too independent for their taste. She even had friends," she added with a sarcastic tone. "They wanted Buffy to go through the Cruciamentum which is an old test of sorts. They magically remove all her Slayer powers and lock her up with a nasty vampire." She drew a deep breath. "That is one of the reasons why only a handful of Slayers have ever lived past their eighteenth birthday. That's when the test takes place."

The two transgenics hadn't moved an inch, both lost in memories from their past.

"Giles got fired because he told Buffy about the test," Willow finished the story.

Alec slowly turned his head to look at Max, who mirrored his movements. There were no words needed as they both shared the same thoughts. The Council might not be as bad as Manticore had been, but it looked like they tried their best. No matter what happened they wouldn't let those bastards get their hands on the Slayer.

"Faith!" Willow suddenly gasped.

"Faith?"

"The other Slayer. Whistler said she would be called back to help with this and that means she have to wake up from her coma and the Council will try to capture her to have her stand trial," the witch babbled.

"Other Slayer?" Max asked with a frown. "I thought Giles said there could only be one."

"There can be only one, Max. And it was Connor MacLeod who said that. You really need to watch more TV," Alec smirked.

"Shut up!"

"Make me."

Willow looked from one transgenic to the next and finally just shook her head.

"Stand trial for what?" Alec questioned, turning back to Willow.

Willow quickly explained the situation, including what they'd learned from Whistler and the events leading up to Faith ending up in a coma. "I need to talk to Giles," she finished as she darted over to the phone.

"Hey Giles, it's Willow. Listen, Whistler said that Faith would be called back so she…"

"Faith woke up last night, so Buffy and I collected her from the hospital. She is currently staying with Buffy and Joyce. I suggest we all meet there later today," Giles interrupted.

"Okay," Willow agreed. "When?"

"I'll be heading there shortly. Could you ask Xander to pick you and our new friends up or should I come by?"

"We can go with Xander," Willow decided. "We'll meet you at Buffy's."

"Very well. Good bye Willow."

"Bye." Willow hung up the phone and turned to the transgenics.

"We can run over to Buffy's house and you can come after with Xander. I could use the workout and I know Max is getting slow," Alec said with a wink in Max's direction. "Sorry we listened in on the conversation," he added with a grin, managing to look anything but sorry.

"Oh," Willow said. "You got some kind of Slayer hearing too?"

Max shrugged. "Dunno about Slayer hearing but we have enhanced senses... among other things."

"Oh," Willow said again. She was so going to have to make them tell her everything later. This was way cool! "Do you know the way?"

"It's cool," Max assured her. "We remember it from yesterday. Besides, we took a look at a map before we got to Buffy's place the first time."

Willow just nodded, accepting the fact that they'd remembered a way they'd only traveled once before in the dark.

"See ya at Buffy's," Alec tossed over his shoulder as they left the house.

Willow went to phone Xander, hoping her friend would be awake.

*****

Buffy opened the front door to find Max and Alec standing there chatting. She frowned and took a look around, trying to spot Willow or Xander. When she couldn't find anyone she turned back to the two transgenics with a questioning look.

"We ran over," Alec explained. "Needed to burn off some energy."

"'kay," Buffy said and stepped aside to let them in. They certainly didn't look like they'd been running all the way from Willow's house. In fact they looked about as winded as if they'd walked about twenty yards. "Oh, the new girl in here is Faith. She's a Slayer like me," Buffy explained. "She'd had a rough time so go easy on her will ya?"

"Willow explained for us," Max said. The transgenics might not have been around for what had happened but they could identify with it for sure. Being forced to do things against their will and without any options was something they were familiar with.

Joyce and Faith were sitting in the living room. The conversation was very one-sided, with Faith mostly staring absently out the window. When the two newcomers and Buffy entered Joyce got up to greet Max and Alec. Faith gave them a curious glance before she resumed staring out the window.

Joyce frowned as she looked the transgenics over. "You two need to get some new clothes," she announced. Being dressed in military camouflage and combat boots was probably great when patrolling but it wasn't exactly your everyday wear. Dressed like that they would draw attention.

Alec stuffed his hands down his pockets and shrugged. "I guess so." His eyebrows rose as he withdrew his right hand from his pocket, holding his wallet. He was so used to having it in his back pocket that he hadn't given it a second thought since they got here. Quickly looking through it he whistled softly. "Woah, looks like The Powers swapped our money for some that works here."

Max quickly checked her own pockets and came up with the same result. She took a look at the ID and handed it to Alec. "This is not my Sector Pass."

Alec took a quick look and checked his own, finding the same thing. He handed the two ID's to Buffy. "Is this how your ID's look like?"

The Slayer took a quick look and nodded. "Looks like they would work fine." Her lips twisted into a smile. "Looks like they thought you were a bit younger too." She handed back the ID's and threw herself down on the couch.

"They made me eighteen!" Alec whined. He snatched Max's ID from her and took a look, making sure they hadn't made her older. "You're eighteen too. This is so not fair."

"What's wrong with that?" Buffy asked.

"They kept our old birthdays," Alec grumbled.

"Huh?"

Max eyes lit up with an evil glint. "So what are you planning to do about that, young man?"

"See what I mean," Alec whined. "She'll be impossible to live with now."

Joyce was the first one to add two and two together and get four. "I see, your birthday is earlier in the year than Alec's."

Max just smirked at Alec's pained groan.

"At least they made them with our made up names," the male transgenic muttered.

"Who the hell are you two?"

Everyone in the room turned to face the dark Slayer, Buffy and Joyce almost relieved that she finally showed some signs of her old self.

Max sighed. "Now that's a long story."

It turned out to be exactly long enough to last until both Willow, Xander and Giles had arrived.

Faith refused to meet Xander's eyes and stubbornly stared into the wall or anywhere but at him. Xander did his best to make sense of his mixed up feelings and decided to give her some space for the time being. It was obvious she was uncomfortable being around him and he could understand why. He just had to figure out how to let her know they were ok. Somehow he didn't think just telling her would be enough.

Giles cleared his throat and requested everybody's attention. "I received a phone call from one of my old friends in the Council yesterday. He informed me that Travers has sent a team to Sunnydale, most likely to try to capture Faith. They should be landing soon and if I know Travers right they will try to capture Faith tonight. Travers has never been known for his patience."

Faith paled and seemed to shrink back into her chair. She didn't need to be told what the Council would do with her if they captured her. She had killed people, admittedly without any choice but she still killed them, and she was out of the Council's control. They would kill her to call a new Slayer.

The two transgenics went very still and their faces hardened. "They're not going to get her," Max said quietly.

"I agree with you Max," Giles said. "We can not let them capture Faith and take her back to England."

"If Buffy needs to patrol like usual we could keep an eye on Faith and take care of those Council guys when they show up," Alec suggested.

"I'm staying too," Xander said.

"You need to go with Buffy if that's what you usually do," Alec said. "We need to show the retrieval team what they're expecting to see."

"We appreciate the offer Alec, believe me," Giles said hesitantly. "But we are talking about ten heavily armed soldiers. And Alec is right, Xander," he added.

The two transgenics looked at each other and shrugged. "So?"

"You mean you could take out ten soldiers alone?" Xander asked with disbelief. He had some of the memories from when he'd been possessed by the soldier spirit and knew how difficult that would be. If they could, then he would so have them teach him to do it.

"We used to practice against Delta Force Teams for fun," Alec grinned. "Do you have some place we can spar a little?"

Xander nodded approvingly. There were no way he was going to risk Faith's safety on something they claimed to be capable of doing. He wanted proof.

Giles looked carefully at the two new youths. He wasn't familiar with the American army but he knew enough to know that Delta Force was some sort of special forces. "I believe we could use the basement in this house if that is all right with you Mrs. Summers," Giles said, turning to Joyce.

"Of course Mr. Giles."

"Very well. Buffy, could you please change for a workout and meet us in the basement?"

"Sure Giles," Buffy said and bounced up the stairs to change.

The rest of the group, minus Faith, followed Giles and Joyce down in the basement. The dark Slayer had fallen asleep on the couch again and they decided to let her rest for the moment. She needed to regain her strength after her time at the hospital.

The room wasn't ideal for what they were going to use it as but it would work. It didn't matter to Alec and Max as they'd been trained to fight in just abut every environment that existed. As long as they could move either their arms or their legs they could fight.

Alec pulled off his socks and walked out in the open area to start some stretches. The Scoobies watched with interest as he stretched, showing a limberness they'd previously only seen in Buffy and Faith. A few minutes later Buffy came bouncing down the stairs and out in the room. She spotted Alec on the floor and went over to him.

"So, how d'ya want to do this?"

Alec gave her an once-over and grinned cockily. "Show me what you got."

Buffy looked quickly in Giles direction to see what he would say. She didn't want to hurt Alec and it wasn't the first time someone had thought themselves able to beat her.

Giles just nodded a 'go ahead' to her.

"Oh-kay," she drawled. "Ready to get your ass kicked?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "If you're nice I might let you hit me once or twice."

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "Right! I was gonna go easy on you but now I'll have to kick your ass."

"What is it with you girls and your obsession with my ass?" Alec grinned and winked at Max.

"That's it!" Buffy announced and aimed a spin-kick at Alec.

The grin on the transgenics face vanished without a trace as his body reacted on instinct. He dodged easily under the kick and stepped back to let Buffy have another shot.

Buffy launched herself at Alec and attacked with a flurry of punches and kicks, all of which the transgenic smoothly avoided. The Slayer stopped momentarily and gave him a surprised look. Oh well, looks like I'll have to strain myself a bit, she thought.

Giles stood leaning against one wall in the room with his eyes locked on the display in front of him. Buffy had started out slowly, trying to find out how good Alec was without hurting him by mistake. That soon changed and she began using some of her Slayer speed. The Watcher's eyes grew wider and wider and his chin dropped as Buffy moved faster and faster and still hardly managed to hit Alec.

Alec was having the time of his life and had to make a conscious effort to stop his face from splitting into a huge grin. This was just way too much fun. He knew they were both moving faster than any human could possibly hope to, and he could see the Slayer grow more and more desperate. He moved smoothly around the kicks and used his forearms and hands to deflect and divert the punches. She was damn good, he had to give her that. The speed of a Slayer was obviously almost up to X5 standard and from the punches he'd blocked instead of averted he guessed their strength was just about equal. What made it possible for him to control the fight and make it seem effortless was his additional sixteen years of training against qualified opponents. It didn't look like Buffy had fought many opponents who really knew how to fight before this. It made it fairly easy for him to predict her next moves and combined with his slight speed advantage it was more than enough.

Buffy was breathing hard as she redoubled her efforts to take down her opponent. She used a combination of punches and kicks she'd learned from Giles and was pleased to see that Alec's blocks came later and later. She was wearing him down! Her fist narrowly missed his face when he deflected her arm right before it would have hit and she quickly followed up with another punch with her other arm. This one was going to hit!

Alec was getting bored and consciously made his blocks a little sloppy, setting her up for the finishing moves. He avoided a punch to the face at the latest possible time and Buffy's next hit came just as he'd expected, straight for his nose. Moving at full speed his left arm shot up and grabbed the Slayer's wrist at the same time as he bent his knees and dodged below the punch. When the punch she'd been sure would hit missed and she overextended herself a bit he took advantage. His right arm shot out and shoved her in the shoulder at the same time as he hooked one of his legs behind her supporting leg.

Willow was giggling and Xander just stared wide-eyed as Buffy ended up on her back with Alec on top of her, effectively pinning her to the ground. Buffy looked like she didn't believe what had just happened and Giles was still just staring.

"Now this position feels familiar," Alec grinned.

That was enough to bring Max out of the dream-like state she'd entered while watching Alec, and she glared at him. "Do you have to always be such a show-off?" she snapped.

Alec smoothly got up from the ground and managed to take Buffy with him before she knew what happened. He raised his eyebrows at Max. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

Max redoubled her efforts to make the glare seem genuine. "You wish!"

Alec shrugged. "True, but that's beside the point."

He walked over to take one of the bottles of water they'd brought down and looked up only to see Max frozen in the same spot. "You all right Maxie?"

"What in God's name are you?" Giles demanded, finally managing to find his voice again.

That only served to double Willow's giggle-attacks and she was soon gripping her stomach while laughing. "Oh God Giles. The look on your face," she managed to get out between giggles.

"Umm.. are you guys related to the Flash?" Xander asked.

Alec looked at Max and raised his eyebrows. "You or me? Or should we give Willow the honors?"

The two transgenics turned to the Wiccan who had managed to stop laughing.

"They're transgenics," she said matter-of-factly.

"Transgenics?" Xander summed up everybody's thoughts pretty well with one word.

"Chimeras, Genetically engineered, humans designed to be the ultimate soldiers," Alec clarified.

"Hey! I saw that movie once!" Xander quipped.

The room was silent for a few long seconds before everybody started asking questions all at once.

The explanation and a few small demonstrations took most of the day with a break for lunch early in the afternoon. Alec took some time to explain to Buffy how he'd beaten her and why the fight had ended like it did. No matter how good a fighter you are, if you're up against someone who's better and also has a slight advantage in speed you will lose. The male X5 felt better than he'd done in weeks. Not only had he been given a good and fun workout, he'd also managed to score a few verbal points against Max and best of all, he couldn't wait until Max went up against one of the Slayers. He was fairly certain she'd expect to beat them as 'easily' as he'd done. After all she regularly 'kicked his ass.' He'd pay money to see her taken down on the ground and back into the real world again.

The now extended Scooby gang moved up into the living room to relax a little before the night's patrol and possible confrontation with the Council's team.

*****

The plane had landed in Sunnydale on schedule and thanks to the right papers they'd had no problem getting their gear through security. MacIntyre supervised his men as they loaded the gear into two large vans and it wasn't long before they could leave the airport.

He'd gone through the mission details with his men on the plane and presented all available intel they had. The Slayer Faith was most likely staying either at Slayer Summers or former Watcher Rupert Giles' home. They could expect to encounter somewhere between two and five persons, including Slayer Summers and Giles.

Alexander Harris and Willow Rosenberg were two friends of Summers' who were most likely around. If the object was staying with Summers they could expect to find the elder Mrs. Summers there as well. Faith was most likely still weak from her time in the hospital and if they could hit the target when Slayer Summers was out on patrol they should be able to get away before anyone noticed they'd even been there.

The problem would be if Summers decided not to patrol and instead stay at home to watch over the rogue Slayer.

Quick surveillance of Giles' apartment made them certain the apartment was empty. The target most likely was at the Summers residence.

MacIntyre and his second in command made final adjustments to the plans. Then it was only a matter of waiting for dark. Whether the other Slayer went out on patrol or not, they had to move in tonight.

*****

Anthony had been a minor player while the Mayor and Trick had been in town, but as soon as they were gone he'd made his move. He'd quickly taken control of the situation at the Hellmouth and installed himself as the current Master vampire in town.

Naturally he was more than a little surprised when the two vampires on guard at his door suddenly flew through it – without opening it first. The minions, both relative fledglings, groaned in pain as they slowly got up from the floor.

Anthony rose from his chair and drew himself up to his full height, intent on intimidating the intruders with a show of power. That plan lasted all of seven seconds before he felt the force of the two vampires entering the room. Suddenly the thoughts of controlling the Hellmouth were replaced with fear for his life.

"Who are you?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice steady.

The two unfamiliar vampires stopped a few steps into the room and took a slow look around. As one they turned to stare at Anthony with piercing eyes.

"I am Marcel and this is Stephan," the vampire to the left said. "We've come here to offer you a deal."

"What deal?"

"Tell us about the Slayers and we'll let you live," Stephan said.

Anthony wasn't really as stupid as most vampires tended to be and it didn't take him long to calculate the odds. He came to the conclusion that if he wanted to live he'd better do as they said. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Uh, right. Want me to start with something specific?"

"Where are they? Who are their friends? Do they have any help other than the Watcher?"

In the darkness of the chamber deep in the sewers, the former Master of Sunnydale started to talk.

*****

Max looked out the window at the half-dark garden at the backside of the house. She could see Faith's seated silhouette, leaned back against a tree. She silently opened the door and slipped out. Faith's eyes were closed and Max could see the traces of old tears on her cheeks. Max slowly made her way over to the dark-haired Slayer and sat down on the ground beside her. "Hey," she greeted.

Faith opened her eyes and glanced in Max's direction. "Hey," she responded quietly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Faith turned to Max again. "What're you doing here?"

Max shrugged. "Saw you sittin' out here. Thought I'd see if you were all right."

"Well, I am. So, you can go now."

Max glanced in Faith's direction. "Doesn't look like it from my point of view."

"It's none of your business anyway," Faith snapped. "I'll deal with it alone." She turned away from Max again and stared off into the distance. "I always do," she added in a whisper.

"It doesn't work," Max replied, just as quietly.

Faith felt her anger build up again. "What the hell would you know about it?" she snapped. "I *killed* people. They made me kill people," she finished with a weak voice as she fought back more tears.

"I grew up on a military base," Max said.

Faith frowned. "So what? Does that make you qualified to be my shrink?"

Max turned her head and looked at the Slayer. "I grew up there and was trained to be a soldier," she said. "From when I was born until I escaped when I was nine."

Faith looked bewildered at the girl beside her. "No offence... but you don't look like a soldier to me."

Max's lips curved into a small smile. "Looks can be deceiving." She let out a small sigh. "I haven't been a soldier for many years but it'll always be a part of me. I can still feel her inside me."

Faith frowned. "Feel who?"

"The soldier," Max said quietly. "Want to meet her?"

Faith shrugged. "Sure." She had no idea what Max was going on about but figured she might just as well play along.

Max closed her eyes and sealed off her emotions and everything that made her human. 452 still lived within her, and it wasn't hard to go back to what had once been everything she was. She opened her eyes again and watched without reaction as Faith flinched back from the sight.

Faith watched curiously as Max closed her eyes and nothing happened. She blinked and focused on the face of the slim girl besides her. Max opened her eyes and Faith couldn't help but drawing back a little at the sight.

The face that had been a mixture of pain, wariness and worry was now completely blank, not showing any trace of emotion. The dark eyes that had held a haunted look were now empty, icy pools of black.

The friendly but guarded girl she'd met earlier was completely gone.

Max closed her eyes again and when she opened them a second later she was back to normal.

"I learned to present that face before I was two years old," she said quietly. "It was the only acceptable face for a soldier."

Faith swallowed and nodded faintly.

"I was seven when I killed my first human being. It was a part of the training and the few who didn't follow orders were terminated as failures." She looked up at Faith's slightly stunned face. "You can learn to live with it," she said softly. "You can't forget it. That just doesn't work, but you can learn to accept it and move on."

Faith didn't reply and Max hadn't expected her to. She laid a comforting hand on the Slayer's shoulder and rose to her feet in a fluid motion.

"Talk to him. It'll help."

Faith looked up, only to see Max's back as she walked back toward the house.

*****

"Buffy, I believe it is time for you to start your patrol," Giles interrupted the gang, who were watching a movie.

Buffy got up from the couch with a sigh. "Right, I'll be right back." She took off up the stairs to change and grab her weapons.

Xander and Willow would be going with her, while Giles was going to stay with Faith. The Watcher normally didn't join the patrols and the two Scoobies did. It would be better to show the Council's team what they were expecting to see.

A few minutes later the three teenagers vanished out into the night to keep the streets of Sunnydale safe.

Faith was sitting at the end of the couch with her legs pulled up against her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. She tried to study the two new people without being too obvious about it.

The two transgenics – genetically engineered soldiers were definitely something new – didn't seem to notice; or if they did they didn't mind. She couldn't figure out why they would do something like this for her and after discarding one reason after another she finally decided to ask them.

"Because we know how it feels to be forced to do something against your will and then get punished for it," Max answered quietly. She looked quickly at Alec and saw him nod his permission faintly. "Alec was forced to plant a bomb that killed the girl he loved. He was tortured for almost six months because he couldn't make himself press the detonator." Max felt her hands close to shaking fists as she thought about what he'd been forced to go through.

"We need to get out so we can take care of them when they come," Alec said expressionlessly.

"Do you think they are here already?" Giles wondered.

Alec nodded. "The same van has passed by the house at least four times in the past two hours. The last one was just after Buffy and the others left so they know she's gone."

The two transgenics pulled on their boots and silently slipped out the back door. They exchanged a few quick hand signals and split up, Max going to the front of the house and Alec covering the back.

*****

MacIntyre was crouched down below the hedge of a house in the neighborhood. His men were spread out in pairs of two around the Summers' residence. The Slayer had left a short while ago together with two of her friends and the only ones left in the house should be Faith, Mrs. Summers and Giles.

Clicking on his radio, he ordered his men to advance.

-----

_A/N:_ If you've read this far, please take a minute and let me know what you think.

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	4. Chapter Three

_Disclaimer:_ Disclaimer for all of the story can be found before the Prologue. 

_A/N:_ I'm drowning in schoolwork! My own fault though, I need to get my ass in gear and actually do something. I have no idea when the next chapter will be done. I've got some of it written but there is a long way to go before it's finished. 

Many thanks to Infie, Maia and Merlin The Enchanter. Also a massive thank you to everyone who have taken their time to give me feedback.

Please let me know what you think.

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**_

Chapter Three

_**

"The original Slayer is most likely out patrolling the cemeteries of Sunnydale. The new Slayer, called Faith, is as far as we know still in the hospital. There are rumors that she might have regained consciousness but no one we talked to was sure about that. If she is conscious she might be moved from the hospital with short notice and be taken somewhere we can't reach her."

Marcus nodded thoughtfully as Marcel finished his report. He'd known that one Slayer was at the hospital and had altered his plans to compensate for that. If she'd wake up and was to be moved it could ruin some careful planning. Originally he'd planned to grab both the Slayers at the same time to avoid one of them getting a warning of what was coming. Now he would have to change that though. If they moved the hospitalised Slayer out of the country he'd never get his hands on her, and that was a loss he wasn't willing to make.

"Marcel, take five others with you and raid the hospital," Marcus ordered. An attack on the hospital had been planned but it wasn't supposed to happen for another two days. They needed blood and the hospital had a fair supply of that. The extra large refrigerators in the basement of his house had been installed just for that purpose, to store the blood from the hospital. If they did the raid now or in two days wouldn't matter in any other way except that it alerted the Slayer that something was happening. It didn't matter now though. They needed both Slayers and if the only way to get one was to alert the other one then so be it.

Six of his children quickly left to go to the hospital and Marcus withdrew to his chambers. He didn't like changing his plans but he'd learned to be flexible, it wasn't often something happened just as you had planned it.

*****

"So what do you think of our new friends?" Xander asked as they made their way through yet another cemetery. 

"It's really cool!" Willow said happily. "I can't even imagine the technology needed to create something like them. And did you see the way Alec moved? It was like looking at a movie on fast forward."

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "And they surely didn't save money when they designed them. I mean, look at them. They're perfect."

The two girls gave him an odd look, Willow's cheeks turning slightly red in the darkness.

Xander turned his head to face them when they didn't respond and noticed the looks.

"Umm, Xander. Is there something you forgot to tell us?" Buffy asked carefully.

Xander gave her a puzzled look before his brain caught up with his mouth and he remembered what he'd said. "Uhh.. I don't mean like that," he tried to explain.

"Uh-huh."

"Really, I mean. They're good looking and all but. No, wait. Max is good looking and if I was into guys I'd probably think Alec was but I'm not and I'll just shut up now."

"Good decision," Willow giggled. "But I understand what you mean."

Buffy raised her eyebrows.

"Uhmm, never mind," Willow spluttered.

"Anyway, it's good to have them here," the witch added after a minute of silence.

"I don't trust them and I don't want them here," Buffy muttered.

"Why's that?" Xander asked. If Buffy didn't trust them he sure as hell didn't want to leave Faith alone with them.

"I don't know," Buffy trailed off. "It's just… We don't *need* their help to take care of a few vampires. Why are they even here?"

"Just be happy they're here to help," Willow said cheerfully. "It'll make it easier for us."

"Yeah, but…" *She* was the Chosen One. It was her responsibility to deal with vampires and other uglies.

"You're just pouting because Alec kicked your ass," Xander grinned.

Buffy glared at him. "I'm *so* not!" she snapped, ignoring the little voice in her head that was telling her he might be right.

"We're going to have to help them if they're staying here," Willow said. "They need somewhere to live and work. Oh, and maybe they could go to College with us after the summer!" she said happily.

Buffy rolled her eyes. She would never figure out how Willow could find school so exciting.

The discussion was interrupted when they were rushed by a group of vampires. There weren't many of them but enough that Buffy couldn't take them all at the same time.

*****

Mitch was in a bad mood. In fact he hadn't been this pissed off in a very long time. Not only had he and his three minions been knocked out the night before but they had been so by two humans! Either someone had lied to him when they said the Slayer was a small blonde or she'd changed hair color. There was no way anyone but a Slayer could have beaten all four of them.

He and his minions were prowling through one of the cemeteries, looking for a snack, when he heard the sound of voices coming from the other side of a crop of trees. Smiling in anticipation he gestured for his minions to follow him.

The voices belonged to three humans who were carelessly walking through the dark cemetery. Oh well, if they were that stupid. He couldn't see the dark haired Slayer from the night before and there were no signs of the guy who had been with her either. Things were looking up.

The humiliating experience last night had taught him something about cautiousness though and he ordered his minions to attack while he hung back and watched.

*****

Buffy dodged a clumsy haymaker from a small vampire and punched him a few times in the chest before she spun around and kicked him in the head. The vampire went flying into a tombstone that broke under the impact. Xander was there in an instant and staked the dazed vampire.

They'd only been patrolling for a short time but had already seen more action than they had in the past three days combined. Lots of vampires were out hunting in the night and the Scooby's kept themselves busy. Luckily most of the vampires seemed to be relatively young and inexperienced and didn't give them too much trouble. 

Willow managed to stake a vampire that focused a little too much on Buffy and took a look around to see if there were any more fangfaces nearby.

Buffy was fighting half-heartedly, her mind not entirely on the fight as her thoughts kept returning to Faith. She dodged another vampire and took off after it when it started to run away. She quickly caught up with the fledgling and made short work of it. Her Slayer senses picked up on another vampire nearby and she spun around to go after it.

Xander had been keeping an eye out for more vampires as Buffy went off chasing after the one that tried to escape. When he hadn't seen any he'd turned around to watch Buffy fight.

Something he shouldn't have done.

The vampire caught his neck in a vice-like grip and bent his head to the side, sinking its fangs deep into the flesh. Xander brought his elbow back as hard as he could, catching the vampire in the ribs. The vampire barely grunted but the movement caused his fangs to rip at the wound.

Afterwards Buffy couldn't remember moving. Willow told her she'd looked almost like Alec when they'd been sparring earlier. She reached Xander and the vampire in record time and threw the vamp off her friend. The vampire had already got a decent meal and had no intention to brawl with a pissed off Slayer. It took off in a dead run and had almost reached the safety of the trees when a hurled stake caught it from behind, thrown with such a force that it almost went straight through the undead body. The dust formerly known as Mitch fell to the ground.

"Xander!" Willow screamed, as the events of the past seconds finally registered in her shocked mind. She reached her oldest friend at the same time as Buffy bent down to check on the barely conscious boy.

"We have to get him to the hospital," Buffy said, half panicking.

Buffy hauled Xander up from the ground and started to jog with her friend in her arms. Willow struggled to keep her pace as she tried to stop the bleeding with her hands. Luckily they hadn't been far away from the hospital and it wasn't long before they ran through the doors…

… right into scenes straight out of a nightmare.

*****

Alec moved silently in the darkness, quickly slipping from one shadow to another. The night was unusually quiet and he could easily pick up the sounds from the moving soldiers. They were good, he had to give them that, but they weren't genetically engineered and that put them at a major disadvantage.

He took position in a shadow and waited. His mind had already slipped back into soldier-mode and he reacted according to years and years of training. He slowed down his breathing and heartbeat to the point where he would be hard to detect for a fellow transgenic. To the ordinary soldiers he was nothing more than a black hole in the night. Impossible to detect unless you stumbled on him.

It didn't take long before the first soldiers entered the garden at the backside. Alec stayed motionless as he waited for the others to show up. He could hear them move and realizing one of the pairs was slightly behind the others he slipped away in the shadows.

The two soldiers had found their route blocked by some thorny bushes and they'd been forced to circle them, losing a minute of time while doing so. If they'd had the time to do proper recon something like this would never have happened but that dipshit Travers was too damn impatient to listen. For not the first time this day the Councilman was silently cursed by the soldiers.

The point man of the two quickened his steps slightly and avoided a graveled area that would cause him to make unnecessary sounds if he crossed it. The second soldier altered his direction slightly to follow his comrade when he felt a something press against a nerve-cluster at the side of his neck. He never had time to react before he lost consciousness and was gently lowered to the ground.

Alec carefully placed the black-clad soldier on the ground and moved to take out his team mate. He couldn't care less if the man was hurt or not but he didn't want him to make any sounds as he hit the ground. The second soldier was about ten meters in front of him and seeing no point in delaying his move he quickly blurred the distance and knocked the man out.

Two down, two to go, the soldier in him noted as he disappeared into the shadows.

Max had taken up position in a tree, deciding it was the best place to hide on the front side of the house. She could easily hear the approaching soldiers and her eyes penetrated the darkness without a problem. The two pairs were moving closely together as they approached the house. None of the soldiers were wearing night vision goggles, she noticed. It was probably a good move as they would be useless once they reached the lit house anyway.

The two pairs of commandos neared the tree she was hiding in and she stopped breathing to minimize the risk for discovery. The pair to the left appeared to have their main focus at the street and the surrounding garden, covering their rear and sides as they advanced. The pair to the right had their focus on the house and their intended target.

The right pair passed under the tree slightly before the left and Max took the opportunity to drop to the ground in-between the pairs. She landed with cat-like grace on the ground and was moving within a split second. One of the rear-guards was walking backwards while covering the street and she took him out much like Alec had taken his first opponent. The man slumped to the ground and she quickly knocked out the second soldier in the pair.

Unfortunately for the X5 the soldier's weapon hit a stone as he fell and a metallic *clang* broke the quiet.

Max cursed under her breath as the two advancing soldiers spun around to investigate the sound and spotted her. She took a dive under the barrels of their guns and was on them before they had a chance to react. It didn't really matter how good the opponents were as long as they were human. The fight lasted all of three seconds before the black-clad men were knocked out flat on the ground.

Max quickly scanned her surroundings and spotting no threat she dragged the four unconscious men together. She searched them for anything useful and her eyes lit up as she found two pairs of handcuffs.

"Oh yeah," she whispered as she arranged the bodies. Thirty seconds later the four men were locked together with two pairs of handcuffs and Max too a step back to admire her work. Good luck trying to get out of that mess, she thought with satisfaction as she started to circle the house. Time to see how Alec handled his part.

The male transgenic in question was both disappointed and amused. The norms were good, that much was sure. They were moving silently for norms and given the chance they would most likely be decent opponents. It was just that compared to the X5s they were no challenge.

He let out a low sigh as he lowered the thirst unconscious man to the ground and slipped up behind his colleague. With a quick, smooth motion he pulled the soldier's knife out of the sheath on his leg and placed it against the man's throat. His other hand snaked around the soldier's head and covered his mouth.

"Shhh," he whispered quietly. The man stiffened with surprise and shock but wisely didn't try to break lose. Alec removed his hand from the man's mouth and quickly removed the earpiece and mic. He needed to ask a few questions without alerting the last two men. Alec quickly identified the radio equipment and switched it off.

A second later he spotted Max as she carefully peaked out from the shadows at one side of the house. He flashed her a quick hand signal and she joined him.

"Any problems?" Alec asked quietly.

"Negative," the transgenic soldier responded before her face split in a wide grin. "Like taking candy from a kid."

Alec smiled back at her, pushing the soldier part of his psyche down a bit. "Yeah, I know. I'm a little disappointed actually. I'd hoped they would be a littler more of a challenge," he grinned.

Max's eyes twinkled with amusement and she had a witty comeback ready when the man Alec was holding in a tight grip almost growled. Her amused expression vanished in an instant and her face went blank.

To any onlookers the change was apparent and suddenly Tim Duncan found himself wishing to be anywhere but where he currently was. He had *no* idea who these kids were, and judging from what he'd seen and experienced he wasn't sure he wanted to know. He hadn't seen anything happen, hadn't even heard a thing, and it looked like he was the only member of the team who was still on his feet. He wasn't sure if the others were dead or just immobilized but he *was* sure that it only depended on if these two had wanted them dead or not. He involuntarily shivered as he looked down into the dead eyes of the girl in front of him.

"There are two more of you somewhere around here," Max said in a flat voice. "Where are they?"

The response was nothing but silence.

"You have two choices," X5-452 informed the man. "One: You tell us what we want to know, we knock you out and you'll leave with your friends very soon. Two: we gag you, tie you to a tree and leave you for the first vamp that finds you. Then we find the last two the hard way and send them packing."

Alec found himself shivering as he listened to Max. He'd never really seen her act as a soldier before and if this was any indication of what she'd been like he understood why Lydecker had been so proud of her. With some serious training she could have been formidable.

"I think you better pick alternative number one," he told the soldier.

In the end self-preservation won out and within a minute Duncan was rendered unconscious and joined his fellow soldiers on the ground. The two transgenics disappeared in the shadows and quickly found the last two men on the Council's team.

MacIntyre groaned as he woke up. His head hurt something fierce and he tried to bring his hand up to rub the sore spot, only to find that he couldn't. His hands were handcuffed behind his back and when he tried to open his eyes he saw nothing but a blindfold. He tried to concentrate on what he felt and heard to see if he could figure out where he was and what had happened. He could hear several persons breathing around him and the hard material he laid on was not the ground outside. It took a second before he recognized it as the floor in one of their vans.

"I have a message to the Council," a flat voice said and MacIntyre spun his head around, trying to locate the voice. A new spike of pain shot through his head and he let out a loud groan as he laid his head back down on the floor.

"The only reason you're alive is because we didn't want to kill you. This time you all leave Sunnydale. Next time half of you don't." The implication was clear. If they came back, half of the team would die.

"The Slayer is our responsibility. We'll take care of her and make sure she stays on the right side of the line. I advise you to not return to Sunnydale, for your own good."

The van shifted slightly as someone moved inside it and a low clinging sound could be heard from somewhere in the back of the van.

"The keys to the cuffs are somewhere in the van. When you find them you'll go directly to the airport and return to England. I don't think I'll have to tell you what will happen if you don't do this."

The back door of the van opened and the car shifted slightly as someone jumped out before the door shut once again. When everything had been silent for a few minutes MacIntyre decided it was safe enough to move and try to free himself.

Alec grinned as he quickly made his way back to the Summers' residence. He'd left the van on the road out of Sunnydale, several blocks away and he was confident that they would be gone before sunrise. If they weren't it would be worse for them, he thought as he turned into the walkway to the house and entered.

*****

"Can somebody help us please!"

One of the young nurses and a security guard simultaneously spun around to face the main entrance to the hospital. The young man the voice belonged too stood gesturing in the doorway, trying to get the attention of someone. He looked vaguely European and from his pale face it was clear to any onlookers that he wasn't a citizen of California.

The two hospital workers both rose to their feet and headed for the entrance in a quick pace. They could see several other young men outside, one of which appeared to be carrying a young woman in his arms. As they approached the doors they could see the blood on the woman's face.

"Get a doctor down here!" the nurse called out before she ran through the doors. "Please take her inside so we can take a look at her," she told the man who carried the woman when she exited the door.

The group of vampires shared a quick look and a cold smile spread on their faces. "Thank you nurse," the one who had shouted after help said.

The security guard relaxed slightly when he realized that the emergency was of the medical kind and not something he would have to deal with. He stepped aside to clear the way through the door and watched as the small group entered the hospital.

Marcel took a quick look around the lobby of the hospital and shook his head. Why did it seem impossible to decorate a hospital and turn it into a place where you actually got some hope when you entered? Sterile white walls and a disgusting smell of disinfections appeared to be the standard for hospitals.

"You all know what to do," he told his four brothers and his one sister. He was one of Marcus favorite children and he was often trusted with leading various operations.

The vampires all nodded and the one who was carrying the woman casually snapped her neck before tossing the body away like a piece of trash.

It took several moments before the shocked humans in the room reacted and when they did it was predictably enough with panic. The nurse who'd met them by the door fainted straight away and the female doctor who'd answered her summoning screamed as she burst through the door just in time to witness the brutal act.

The security guard fumbled to get his gun out, something he'd never had to do in his 5 years of security work. He'd just got the gun out when a large hand closed over his with a vice-like grip.

The vampire tightened his grip as much as his considerable strength would allow and almost purred in satisfaction as he heard bones break. The look of surprise and horror in the face of the human was replaced by a look of absolute pain and for a moment the vampire toyed with the idea to let the man live and have some more fun with him. Marcel had given the order though and they all knew what they had to do. With his other fist he landed a mighty blow to the human's throat and crushed his windpipe before he released the man's hand and let him drop to the ground.

People were scrambling around, trying desperately to flee from the obviously drugged up gang members that had entered the hospital. Most of them wouldn't have survived if it had been a normal vampire attack, but Marcus children had a specific goal in mind and ignored the humans who thought hiding under chairs and tables would save them.

The vampires quickly spread out with four of them heading for the room where the Slayer was supposed to be and the remaining two to the room with the blood supply.

Marcel grabbed the nurse behind the desk around the throat and casually tossed her over his shoulder as he began to leaf through the patient records. He quickly found the name 'Faith' and didn't bother to check for anything but the room number before he took off down the corridor. So what if she needed some special treatment to survive? It wasn't like she was supposed to survive in the first place. She just had to do it for a couple of days until they could capture the other Slayer and perform the ritual.

The door to the hospital room was kicked of its hinges and went sailing through the air before it hit the edge of the bed and clattered to the floor. Four vampires piled into the room and stopped dead in their tracks as they stared at the empty bed.

"Where is she?" Luther growled a second before Marcel could do the same thing.

"She was supposed to be here," the older vampire growled back. He spun around and stormed out through the door, heading for the nurse's desk. He heard a moaning sound from behind the desk and pulled the barely conscious nurse to her feet.

"Faith Williams. Where is she?" Marcel asked menacingly.

The nurse's eyes rolled back in their sockets as the combination of the blow to the head and fear caused her to pass out.

The vampire growled in disgust and dropped the human to the ground. A few minutes of going through records made it clear that the Slayer had been released from the hospital the day before. She had been released into the care of a Rupert Giles, which they knew was the Watcher's name. That either meant the Slayer was taken back to England or that she was with the other Slayer. In either case they wouldn't get their hands on her tonight.

"She's gone. Everybody help Matthias and Allessandro with the blood instead," Marcel ordered.

The vampires shared a quick look before they complied. They hadn't expected everything to go smoothly, not when they were up against Slayers. But it was the first time ever they'd seen one of Marcus' plans fail completely and it made them uneasy.

Marcel was fully aware of what went through the heads of his brothers and sisters. But he also knew that not many plans survived the first contact with the enemy.

The vampires quickly reached the room with the blood supply and found their two brothers loading several carts with blood bags. With the additional help of four more vampires they quickly emptied the cold-storage room and headed for the exit.

The surviving security guards had seen on their monitors when the vampires had entered and witnessed in full color how their colleague was brutally murdered. After arming themselves with whatever weapon they could scramble they'd taken up positions in the lobby to prevent the druggies from leaving.

When the first vampire stepped out from a corridor, pushing a cart full with blood bags in front of him he found himself facing half a dozen of guns.

"Freeze!"

"Don't move or you're dead!"

The six vampires piled into the room and quickly assessed the situation. After a quick look at Marcel for confirmation they moved as one and attacked.

The security guards hesitated for a split second as the druggies ran straight into the barrels of six guns. Rage and bloodlust took over and the guards opened fire. The short barreled revolvers probably looked impressive but the accuracy of them was non existent. Combine that with security personal that for one reason or another hadn't made it through police school and the result was predictable. As Alec would have said: These guys can't hit a barn from the inside.

The vampires took a few hits which barely slowed them down. Lots of shots passed nearby though and in the line of fire were the five carts filled with bags of blood.

Security work at Sunnydale hospital went from being a relatively safe job to one of the most dangerous in the country as half of the security staff was wiped out in less than a minute. When the gun smoke had settled the lobby looked like a scene from a hack 'n slash movie. There were blood *everywhere* and the bodies of the security force littered the ground.

The vampires ignored the screams from the remaining humans and gathered what they could of the hospital's blood supply. They'd lost a lot of bags to the guard's gunfire but there were still plenty left. Without a second glance at the destruction they disappeared out the door and into the night.

Marcel cursed silently for himself. Not only had they failed to capture the Slayer but they had also lost almost a third of the blood. Marcus would not be pleased to hear that.

And on top of it all he'd got a bullet in his upper right thigh. It hadn't done much damage but it still hurt something fierce.

*****

A few minutes later Buffy burst through the doors to the hospital with Xander in her arms and Willow by her side. The Slayer stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the scene in front of her. She'd never seen so much blood before in her life. Never.

Willow was struggling to keep up with the Slayer and when the blonde girl suddenly stopped she didn't react fast enough. She continued on for a few steps and her hands lost the grip on Xander's wound. Then the appearance of the lobby registered in the young Wicca's mind and she emptied her stomach on the floor.

"Goddess."

Buffy snapped out of her daze and continued in with Xander. "Can I get a doctor here please!" she called out, not sure if there were any idea to do so. Judging from all the blood there had to be loads of victims and most of the doctors would probably be busy already. She was more than a little surprised when two doctors immediately came running in her direction.

"His throat," the Slayer pointed out the obvious to the doctors, should they prove to be blind or something. "He was attacked by some wild animal. You gotta help him!"

"Calm down miss," one of the doctors said. "Lay him down on the stretcher," he instructed, pointing to two orderlies who'd followed behind.

Willow had recovered slightly from the shock and joined Buffy as she handed Xander over to the doctors.

"He's lost a lot of blood," the witch said in a weak voice. "He'll probably need a transfusion."

The two doctors shared a look. At the moment anything was better than someone who needed a transfusion. "What blood group is he?"

Buffy opened her mouth to answer that she had no idea but Willow beat her to the point.

"AB negative."

"Does anyone of you have the same blood group or do you know anyone who does?"

"What? Why?" Buffy asked.

The doctors shared a quick look again. "There was a gang attack just ten minutes ago." He gestured at the blood soaked lobby. "For some reason they stole all the blood."

"You don't have any blood to give him?" the Slayer went pale.

The resigned look on the doctor's faces was all the answer they needed.

Willow went into full panic, babbling incoherently while Buffy stood stunned with a look on disbelief on her face. This wasn't supposed to happen! Xander never got hurt and if he did he was as good as new again the next day!

"Max and Alec!" Willow suddenly shouted. "Maybe one of them have the same blood group as he has?"

Buffy didn't hesitate a second before she darted over to the phones to call home.

In the meantime the doctors had taken Xander away and did their best to repair the damage the animal had caused. Closing the wound and repairing the damage to the artery proved to be easier than they had thought. The wound was deep but it wasn't very wide. The weak heartbeat however was a cause of great worry. Unless they got some blood in the young man really soon he would probably not make it.

*****

Alec walked into the house without knocking and proceeded into the living room. Max had gone inside to let Mrs. Summers, Giles and Faith know what had happened while he sent the Council's team packing. He expected the three humans to be up to date on what had transpired and was ready to explain what he'd done with the soldiers. He did *not* expect to see Faith being bodily restrained by Max while a ashen faced Giles talked to someone on the phone.

"I see, Buffy. I will ask them," Giles said into the phone.

"Let me go!" Faith yelled from her position beneath Max on the floor. She was squirming and tossing, trying everything she could to get loose, but the transgenic held her in a firm grip.

"What's going on?" Alec asked.

"It appears that," Giles started only to be interrupted by Max.

"Xander's been hurt. The hospital was hit by vamps who stole the blood. He needs a transfusion."

Giles stared at the female X5 for a second. She'd heard the other end of the conversation through all the noise here? "Yes, no one of us has the same blood group as Xander. What blood group are you two? Is your blood even compatible with human blood?"

"We're universal donors," Alec said. "I'll go to the hospital, take care of Faith," he said to Max.

"I'll drive you there," Giles said as he grabbed his keys.

"I've seen your car," Alec smirked. "It'll take too long. Follow after if you want or stay here. I'll make sure he gets the blood he needs." And with that he disappeared out the front door.

Disappeared being the key word.

The two humans didn't even see him move. The only thing that told them which way he'd gone was the door that he'd never shut on his way out.

Giles stared open mouthed at the half open door. Good Lord he was fast!

"Let me go or I'll tear your arms off!" Faith growled.

"Don't worry Faith. Alec will make sure he's all right. You can see him tomorrow when we're sure the Council's soldier wannabes are gone."

"Whatever."

It took a few minutes before Giles and Joyce had collected themselves enough to close the front door. Faith struggled against Max's grip for some time but finally gave up with a snort and a glare. Her gaze wandered to the door that Alec had disappeared out through and then back to Max.

"Exactly how fast are you guys?"

Max shrugged. "We dodge bullets."

"Oh."

*****

Alec burst through the doors to the hospital, almost ripping the doors of the hinges. He was breathing hard from running at full speed for a fair distance and he fought to keep his breathing controlled as he walked up to the reception.

"Alexander Harris? Which room?"

The nurse looked up from her papers and gave his sweaty appearance a disapproving look. "Are you family?"

Alec fought the urge to snap at the middle age woman and settled for a more diplomatic approach. "He needs blood and we're the same blood group. Which room?"

The nurse quickly tapped a few keys on her computer and brought up the file she needed. Alec was moving even before she'd finished talking.

*****

"Don't worry Wills. He'll be all right," Buffy tried her best to reassure the panicked redhead. 

Willow had brought up a chair to the bed and was sitting as close to her unconscious friend as she could. Both her hands were clasped in a death-grip around Xander's left hand, as if she could physically keep him from leaving the world of the living. She was mumbling silently to herself and not even Buffy could make out the words even though she was only a few feet away. Whether Willow was praying or trying to make up a last minute spell, she seemed to be totally focused on her task. 

Buffy sighed and her eyes drifted to the pale face of her only male friend. Her Xander-shaped friend. She swallowed a lump in her throat at the sight of her protector's helpless form. Her eyes drifted back to the door and then to her watch to start over again a few seconds later. She knew intellectually that it had only been a short time since she called and told Giles what had happened, but it felt like a lifetime ago. She didn't even know if the transgenics could help but she clung to that hope with the same furiousness as a drowning man to a piece of wood.

She checked her watch again and cursed silently. Depending on how you looked upon it time was either moving too slow or too fast. Xander was still alive but for every second that passed the situation got worse. Please God let him be all right, she silently prayed.

Willow looked up with blurry eyes as the door burst open. She blinked a few times to clear the tears from her eyes and when she saw Alec bodily dragging a nurse behind him into the room she felt the first faint traces of hope. The nurse was carrying a box that she assumed contained the necessary tools for setting up a transfusion. That had to mean that Alec could give her bestest friend blood.

Alec moved quickly over to the free side of Xander's hospital bed and sat down on a free chair. The nurse, now released from his grip, worked fast as she set up the transfusion. One of the doctors that had worked on Xander a short time earlier burst into the room a few seconds after the nurse and quickly took in the scene with a professional look.

"AB negative?" he asked Alec.

"Yeah," Alec replied, without averting his gaze from the dark red liquid that flowed through the transparent plastic tube connected to his arm.

"Thank God," the doctor breathed. "He needs more but this will at least give him a chance."

"I can give him three pints."

The nurse and the doctor both gasped. "No way!" the doctor said firmly. "I will not let you kill yourself to save your friend."

Alec turned his head and looked up from the pale figure on the bed. "I can give three pints," he stated firmly. "I've done it before and I can do it again."

The doctor started to protest but was interrupted by the small blonde who sat at the other side of the bed. "Please listen to him doc. If he says he can do it he can do it."

The doctor shifted his gaze between the two young people and sighed. The determined look in the young man's eyes and the pleading one in the girl's finally won. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll let nurse Standish stay here to keep an eye on you." Shaking his head he left the room. So the guy could give three pints without problem? Sure, with all the weird stuff that went on in this town, why not. Not for the first time he considered moving to a more normal place.

Alec let out a breath of relief when the doctor left. He knew he could give three pints without problem but he'd been afraid that the doctor would try to stop him. It was obvious that Xander needed as much blood as he could get to make it.

He watched numbers on the monitor slowly rise as Xander's blood pressure increased. Everything would be all right. He'd done this hundreds of times before and he instinctively knew it would work out in the end. Alec stifled a yawn as the last hours of tension made itself felt. Willow and Buffy were both holding Xander's other hand while intently watching their friend.

"It'll be all right," he reassured the two girls. "I'll take a nap, wake me up when I've given enough," he said, directing the last part to the nurse who was eying him nervously. She opened her mouth to voice a protest but Alec silenced her with a glare.

He made himself as comfortable as he could in the chair and closed his eyes, drifting off to a sleep he knew would be filled with dreams.

*****

"Will it work?" Giles asked carefully. "You said you were universal donors but are you sure a normal human can use your blood?"

"Yes," Max answered firmly.

"How can you be sure?" Faith asked.

Max sighed. "I gave a friend a transfusion once to save his life. It worked."

The three others in the room could all hear the slightly different emphasis on the word 'friend' but decided to let it go for the moment.

Max debated with herself for a few seconds whether or not she should tell them about their healing abilities. On one hand it might ease their minds but on the other hand she didn't want to give them any false hope if it didn't work. As far as she knew it had always worked though.

"It'll probably work better than if he'd been given normal human blood," she said carefully.

"What do you mean?" Giles asked.

"Our blood is full with stem cells, which is a part of what gives us our rapid healing. It can help heal others wounds if you transfuse them."

"I see, how intriguing," Giles commented. "Exactly how effective would this be?"

Max shrugged. "The guy I transfused had a severed spinal cord. He was walking again when…" Max trailed off, choking back a sob. She might not have been in love with Logan anymore when he died but she still cared for him.

"My Lord!" Giles exclaimed simultaneously with Faith who used a slightly more colorful expression.

Joyce was clearly as impressed as the others but her motherly instincts immediately took over when she heard the last part. She reached over and placed a comforting hand on Max's shoulder. The transgenic tensed at the touch but took the gesture for what it was and calmed down slightly.

"Very well," Giles said and stood. "It doesn't seem like there is anything more we can do at the moment. I will go to the hospital and see how Xander is doing. I will see you all in the morning." With that the watcher headed for the door.

Faith made a move to raise and follow him but Max just shook her head. "You can't do anything now and it's safer for you to stay here."

The dark haired slayer glared at her for a moment and stormed off up the stairs. Max let out a slow sigh and shook her head. She'd have to have a talk with Faith about Xander.

"She is worried," Joyce said silently. "She cares for him but she doesn't know how to act about it."

Max nodded. "I'll talk to her. You should try to get some sleep." She silently followed Faith up the stairs and through the hall to the closed door to one of the bedrooms.

Max hesitated for a moment outside the door. Did she even know what to talk about? Could she possibly be of any help or would she only make the situation worse? Deciding to at least give it a try she knocked lightly on the door. When she didn't get a response she tried again.

"Go away!"

Well, that was about what she'd expected. Ignoring the command she opened the door and stepped into the bedroom.

*****

Xander slowly regained consciousness. He tried to remember where he was and why he was there but came up with a blank. He slowly opened his eyes to narrow slits, partly to protect them from any bright lights and partly to try to fool any observers to believe he still was unconscious.

The room he was in was clearly a hospital room. Something was very off with it though. Instead of the white, sterile light you normally found in hospitals this room was lit with a yellowish golden glow that seemed to radiate from everything in the room. Even the walls were glowing softly yellow.

"Ah, welcome back." A voice suddenly said. He found it strangely familiar but at the same time he couldn't place it. It was obvious that the person now knew he was awake though so he turned his head and opened his eyes fully.

"Hey, X-man," Alec said with a smirk.

Xander's eyes narrowed. "Where am I? And what are you doing here?"

Alec sighed. "Now *that* is complicated. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

Alec shrugged. "You're in the hospital. From what I understand you were hurt by a vamp. Buffy and Willow brought you here and the doctors patched you up. Since vamps stole all the blood from the hospital they couldn't give you a transfusion and that's why I'm here."

"Still doesn't explain where we are," Xander said, waving at the strange looking room.

"This is where it gets complicated," Alec sighed. "I can't prove anything of this so you'll just have to take my word for it."

Xander nodded slowly.

"Right. When one of our kind transfuses someone, may it be another transgenic or a human, our blood creates a sort of connection between the two persons. I have no idea if it's actually something they wanted us to be able to do or if it was something that just happened. What I know is that it can be very helpful on missions." Alec's eyes darkened slightly as various unpleasant memories surfaced. "To be able to question one of your soldiers before he or she regains consciousness can save you lots of time and therefore lives."

"Oh-kay," Xander said slowly. "I take it you're transfusing me now and that's why we're here?"

"Yeah," Alec nodded.

"Uh… Thanks. I guess."

Alec smirked. "No problem."

"Not to sound ungrateful or anything but is anything going to happen with me once I have some of your blood?" Xander asked a little worried.

"You'll survive," Alec said.

"Well, guess that's good."

"It is. Don't worry. There might be some side effects but nothing bad," Alec added with a small grin.

"Errr.. You can't say 'don't worry' and then add something like that. It's just… wrong."

Alec laughed. "There's nothing to worry about, trust me. Besides from the fact that I have no wish what so ever to harm you, Faith would kill me if I did."

Faith would kill Alec? Did that mean she cared about what happened to him or did he read too much between the lines now? Xander let his head fall back against the pillow again and closed his eyes for a second.

"So, what should we do while we wait for the transfusion to finish?" Alec asked.

Xander opened his eyes again and looked at the transgenic, who looked bored out of his mind. "I have no idea. It's not like you need to do a debriefing or anything."

Alec grinned. "So, wanna trade old war stories?"

And with that the room around them faded away…

*****

Max was met with the full power of a Slayer Death Glare as she stepped over the doorstep into the bedroom. It bounced harmlessly off her as she closed the door behind her.

"I said, 'Go away!'" Faith growled.

Max tilted her head slightly to one side. "I know," she said and pulled up a chair next to the bed.

Faith just stared open mouthed at the other girl. What the fuck was wrong with her. Didn't she realize she could get hurt if she pushed her. Then the rational part of her caught up with the emotionally driven and she slumped back on the bed. Even if she really *wanted* to hurt Max she probably couldn't. At least not in the weakened state she was in now.

"What do you want?"

Max hesitated. What was it really she wanted? She knew Faith needed someone to talk to and she'd figured, what the hell, she could just as well do it. In reality she really had no idea what to do. It wasn't like she'd had many serious talks with others before.

"Just came to talk," Max replied.

"I don't want to talk."

"I know." The room was silent for a minute. "Tell me about him."

"About who?" Faith said with badly faked ignorance.

Max didn't bother to answer, deciding to just look at the dark slayer until she gave in.

"I don't even know where to start," Faith mumbled after a while.

"Tell me why you like him," Max said and held up a hand to stop Faith when she opened her mouth to deny it. "I mean he seems like a nice guy and all. Maybe a little goofy and boyish."

Faith argued the pros and cons of talking with herself for a while before she decided to screw it all and just talk. If she wanted to hang around she'd have to talk to the others.

She let out a deep sigh and sat up in the bed, making herself comfortable before starting. "I don't even think he is that goofy and stuff. It's just how he acts around others. His armor or whatever."

Max raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"He hasn't said anything but I'm pretty sure he's not had an easy life," Faith said slowly.

Max just nodded. It was obvious what the other girl meant and to Max it was equally obvious that the slayer spoke out of experience.

"If it wasn't for him we'd all be dead you know."

That piqued Max's curiosity and she asked Faith to tell her.

"I wasn't there for what happened in the beginning but from what I've heard he saved B's life right away when she got here. When the Master killed her he was the one who brought her back with CPR. Sure, he's done some stupid things too but with all the good he's done…"

Faith continued to talk, describing many of the events that had happened in Sunnydale and the fights they'd fought. When she got to the fight with the Sisterhood of Jhe and what had happened that night she already had a sore throat.

"I was so dead. That bitch had me and was just about to off me y'know. Then X-man comes barreling down the road in his uncle's car and hits the demon dead on. We got away and hid back at my place. I'd been in this huge fight and hadn't got to kill anything. I was just about to pop and needed a way to unwind." She grinned. "It wasn't like I hadn't wanted to do it before though."

Max grinned back. She could see where this was heading now.

"So I threw him down on the bed and had my wicked way with him. It was pretty good too, for being his first time." Another grin. "And for a while everything was just right again." Her voice dropped to nothing more than a whisper at the end. "And then those fucking powers had to screw up my mind and I threw him out in his underwear." A tear rolled down her cheek.

Max moved to the bed and awkwardly placed her arm around Faith's shoulders, pulling the other girl to her. They sat together for some time before Faith pulled back and wiped her eyes.

"If you ever tell anyone 'bout this I'll have to kill you," she warned.

Max laughed. "Don't worry."

"Are you sure you're not attracted to him just because he's this save-the-world type?"

"No, he's not like that," Faith protested. "I mean, he doesn't even tell people of what he does. Later that night he stopped some zombies from blowing up the school when we were all fighting to close the Hellmouth." Oh shit, she then realized. "I bet the others doesn't even know it. I heard it from Willy the Snitch a few days later."

Max grinned. "Sounds like a good guy. I'm pretty sure he likes you too."

Faith's head turned around so quickly that Max was afraid the slayer would break her own neck. She couldn't hold back a laugh at the mixture of shock and hope she saw on the girl's face.

"He told you that?" Faith asked.

"Nah, didn't need to. It's pretty obvious."

A grin spread on Faith's face. "Like with you and Alec."

Max's jaw dropped. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Riiiight," Faith drawled. "You so want him, and he wants you."

"I don't want that womanizing bastard. He slept with just about every single woman in Seattle." Max growled.

Faith raised her eyebrows. "And that bothers you exactly why?"

Max's jaw worked a few times before it snapped shut and she looked down.

"Knew it," Faith grinned.

"Whatever. He doesn't want me anyway. He just wants blonde bimbos. I'm surprised he hasn't gone after Buffy yet."

"So he only ever slept with blondes?"

"Yeah."

"C'mon M, you can't be this blind?"

"What!?"

"Awww…. I'm pretty sure the girls would be beyond pissed if he started moaning your name in the middle of it," Faith grinned. "At least with blondes there's no way he can mistake the girl for you."

Max just stared blankly at Faith who burst out laughing.

"Oh God. The look on your face was totally priceless."

"Shut up!"

"Nu-huh, no way!" Faith grinned. "Tell you what. You leave me and Xan alone and I wont tell B and Red about this."

*****

The hospital room dissolved around them and they found themselves floating in the air above the assembly area of a military base somewhere. Rows upon rows of soldiers stood attention, waiting for something to happen.

Xander immediately recognized the scene. It was one of the memories of the soldier, buried deep within his own mind after the Halloween incident. This was the Soldier's first day in the army. He could remember the feeling Soldier-guy had this first day. The pride to be a part of something greater, something with the purpose to protect. He remembered the easy comradeship between the soldiers in his unit and how they'd grown closer and closer over the years until they considered themselves to be a family. Soldier-guy had loved being in the army, despite the violence and the dark memories.

Alec had no idea exactly where they were but the scene was uncomfortably familiar to him. He turned to his left and saw Xander floating in the air a few meters beside him. The younger man reached out with his arm and pointed at one of the soldiers, standing beneath them. 

Alec frowned as he watched the soldier. He knew for certain that he'd never laid his eyes on the man before but at the same time he got the feeling that he should recognize the green-clad soldier. He turned back to Xander and raised his eyebrows in question.

"He's me."

"Huh?"

Xander sighed. "I have his spirit inside me. At Halloween last year a chaos mage cast a spell that turned everyone into the costume they wore. I had his used fatigues."

Alec's eyes widened. "So did you get the memories and skills and everything?"

"Yeah," Xander sighed. "Wasn't as fun as one could imagine."

"Sounds neat. Combat experience, training and experience wrapped up in a nice package."

Xander shuddered visibly. "Could have done without some of the memories though."

"Nightmares?"

"You have no idea."

Alec's eyes darkened. "I'm pretty sure I do."

And the scene changed again.

They found themselves in the assembly area of a military base. Rows upon rows of soldiers stood attention, waiting for something to happen.

Xander frowned at the sudden change and quickly took in his surroundings, trying to figure out what had happened. Then he did a double take as he looked closer at the 'soldiers' below him.

They were kids.

Every single one of them.

He drew a sharp breath and looked around for Alec, finding the transgenic floating in the air a little behind him.

Alec forced his eyes away from the scene beneath him and met Xander's look with dead eyes.

"Welcome to my childhood."

"A-Ten-Shun!"

The loud yell from one of the black-clad men on the ground caused Xander to spin around mid-air and he watched as all the kids snapped to attention. Someone who Xander immediately recognized as an officer walked out from one of the buildings and walked slowly down the rows of kids, inspecting the troops.

Xander jerked as Alec suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder and pointed at one of the kids with his free arm.

"X5-494."

"X5-494?"

"My designation. What I was for the first 21 years of my life."

Xander frowned. "Why not just pick a name?"

Alec shook his head sadly. "A name implies that you're a person. A designation, that's how you label a tool or a weapon." He turned back to watch the scene below. "And that's all we ever were to them."

Xander could feel the anger and disgust build within him. He wanted to fly down there and beat the crap out of the guards and the officers. Suddenly one of the kids collapsed without any obvious reason, his small form curled up on the ground shaking more violently than anything Xander'd ever seen. Two of the guards quickly stepped up to the fallen kid and grabbed his ankles, dragging him away like a sack of potatoes. One of the kids turned slightly to watch and got the butt of a rifle in his forehead.

"Eyes front, soldier!"

The two watchers floated down closer to the kids, slowly gliding down the rows until they came to a stop behind X5-494. The barcode on his neck was clearly visible, standing out even against the tanned skin and above the collar of the t-shirt. The only thing Xander could feel from the young version of Alec was the overwhelming urge to not do anything wrong. To not do anything that could get him punished.

The Slayerette swallowed visibly before turning back to Alec. "Where did they take the kid with the seizures?"

Alec wasn't watching anymore, his unfocused eyes lost somewhere in a distant past. His voice was flat and hollow when he finally answered. "The X5 unit was defective," he quoted the voices in his memory. "It was dissected in order to determine the reason for the malfunction."

"How. How many?" Xander asked with barely restrained anger.

"About one fourth of us before the age of twelve. By then they'd sorted out the problem and the ones who still got the seizures were treated for them."

Xander shook himself to try to stop the shivers that were running through his body. "How old were… you?" he asked, gesturing to the scene in front of them.

Alec turned his head slowly, taking in the scene as if trying to recognize the event. Finally he just let out a small sigh and shook his head. "I have no idea. We didn't know when we were born or what year it was. A week was something you kept track of to know when the next change in training routines was due. When we grew older we started to secretly celebrate New Years Eve when we learned about it from the guards. We weren't really celebrating the arrival of a new year though. We celebrated that we'd survived the past one."

The scene shifted again before either of them could say anything more and they found themselves at a shooting range. The soldier part of Xander couldn't help but assessing the skills of the young X5s as they trained with weapons that were as large as they were. The accuracy of the transgenics was astounding, and when he witnessed the consequences of a missed shot it wasn't hard to understand why. The combination of the genetics and the inhuman training was nothing short of astounding.

Still, he thought as he watched the scene below, it wasn't something that ever should have happened.

The scenes continued to change as the 'day' passed by. From the tracking exercises in the woods to the 'lessons' in the 'class rooms.'

The room was filled with young soldiers, sitting at the desks with straight backs and arms bent at ninety degrees, palms placed on the cold surface of the desks.

Empty eyes were staring from expressionless faces at the words that flashed by on the big screen in front of them.

Duty.

Mission.

Discipline.

Loyalty.

Unit.

Manticore.

Duty.

Mission.

Discipline.

Loyalty.

Over and over again with unfaltering exactness the screen changed. Ten times. Twenty times. Fifty. A hundred. Then the words started to mix with pictures. Scenes of violence from wars so brutal that the news media hadn't been allowed to cover them. Pictures of burned and mutilated bodies. Pictures of weapons and explosives and the result the usage of them had on a human body.

Xander could feel his stomach revolt at the scene in front of him and hadn't he been incorporeal he was sure he'd thrown up.

One of the X5s tried to turn her head away from the horrific scenes on the screen but a guard was there within a split second and forced her head back with a nightstick on her cheek.

*****

Alec found himself watching over a completely unfamiliar scene. The environment was nothing new, but the soldiers occupying it were. Even though he knew his situation was as different as night and day from a normal soldier's, his mind still needed a few seconds to grasp that there were grown up soldiers going through basic training down there.

He watched in silence, not that he had any choice, for a while and took in the various differences between what he knew from personal experience and what he saw. While the officers and drill sergeants were pretty rough and demanding he never saw any signs of physical punishment (aside from extra push-ups or more running). The soldiers weren't beaten up if they failed to perform or did any mistakes. The whole scene was almost surreal to the transgenic. Intellectually he *knew* that this was how it was supposed to be, but his subconscious screamed at him that it all was arranged to show him something that couldn't exist. 

The scenes started to change and real missions in what looked like a full out war soon replaced the training. The jungles were nothing he hadn't seen before on missions of his own. The soldiers weren't as well trained or as skilled as he or his unit had been but they did their best with what they had. The man Xander had pointed out, the one he'd said was him, was the one the scenes focused on. The scenes shifted rapidly and he saw some really sick things being done by others and even more often saw the aftermath of actions Manticore would have been proud of. He saw 'Xander' be injured and then thrown back into the chaos the war was as soon as he had recovered enough to be let out of the military hospital.

All through the frighteningly real memories he watched and wondered what the fuck he was doing there and why he was seeing what he saw. The thought that foremost occupied his mind though was 'how could that be Xander'?

Magic was just impossible to understand.

*****

Xander was stuck in a nightmare.

At least he wished it was one.

It had to be.

He was caught in a three-dimensional horror movie that made his soldier memories look like PG rated stuff in comparison. Soldiers that were nothing more than young kids with abilities he had problems to grasp were fighting wars that made the Vietnam War seem like a cakewalk.

That wasn't the worst though.

No, the worst was the deep-cover civilian missions.

Assassinations.

The horror on the faces of the nameless people who woke up with the emotionless face of a teenager staring at them from the other side of a gun. The complete lack of expression on said teenager's face as they pulled the trigger. He didn't want to watch but some morbid fascination made it impossible for him to turn away. Somehow he also knew it was important that he watched it through to the end.

The nightmare shifted quickly, playing out in a speed that was a lot faster than he should have been able to follow and yet he still caught every detail. Suddenly it all slowed down to what felt like normal speed and he knew he'd somehow reached a turning point in the life of X5-494.

It didn't take long for him to know what was different this time. For the first time ever the transgenic was treated like a human, like an equal. And for the first time ever he felt love.

Xander watched with a heavy heart how the scenes played out, how the two grew closer and closer as time passed by. He desperately wanted to intervene, to change what he was seeing, because he knew deep down that it could never end well.

494, who was posing as Simon Lehane, a piano teacher, fell in love with his pupil Rachel. For the first time Xander actually felt something from the transgenic, the cold and detached façade crackled and crumbled thanks to a power greater than the fear Manticore used to control him.

Love.

*flash*

_"You understand your assignment?"_

_"Yes, sir. It's just..."_

_"It's just what, 494?"_

_"Sir, I can eliminate Berrisford without involving the daughter. It just seems to me the collateral damage is an unnecessary—"_

_"You're not in charge of this mission, 494. Your job, and your only thought, is to follow our orders."_

_"Yes, sir."_

_"Are you capable of doing that?"_

_Below him Alec hesitated for a few seconds before he answered. "Yes, sir."_

_"Because if for some reason we lost confidence in you...we'd have no need for you."_

_"No, sir."_

_"So we're clear, then?"_

_"Crystal, sir."_

The scenes flashed by faster and faster and no matter how much he wanted Xander could do nothing but watch.

*flash*

_494 plants the bomb under the car and looks down at the remote detonator in his hands as he walks away from the car._

*flash*

_494 sneaks into the house and runs up the stairs._

*flash*

_"Simon, what are you doing?"_

_"We don't have a lot of time."_

_"What's the matter?"_

_"Listen to me. You and your father need to leave town right now."_

_"Why?"_

_494 grabs her shoulders. "I'll cover for you. I'll tell 'em that you left in the middle of the night. But you have got to go now."_

_"You're hurting me!"_

_"Come with me."_

_"No! Tell me what's happening."_

_"Okay. I was sent here to kill your father."_

_"It was my job. You were my job."_

_Rachel slaps Alec and starts running down the stairs as her father calls out for her._

_"Rachel!"_

_Alec follows her down the stairs, trying desperately to stop her. Just as he reaches the driveway Berrisford's car explode into flame._

_"Rachel!"_

_A SUV pulls into the driveway. Inside, a Manticore man is holding a bomb remote and looks angry._

_"Get in." Alec doesn't move. "Let's go!"_

_Two men gets out of the SUV and drag Alec into it._

*flash*

_Scenes of Alec being tortured back at Manticore succeed each other and after a while blurs together._

*flash*

Xander watches a completely detached 494 sitting on his bunk in a cell. His memory has been pretty much wiped and he's not caring about anything anymore. Somehow Xander still gets the feeling that deep down in the transgenic the fire still burns.

The scene started to fade away and Xander could vaguely hear someone calling his name. He tried to hang on to the dream; desperate to know what would happen and how Alec came to be the person he was today.

*****

Alec woke up with a start, drawing in a deep breath when the nurse shook his shoulder.

"You've given enough now," she said quietly.

Alec opened his mouth to protest but she silenced him with a gesture. "He'll be fine now, don't worry." She gave him a tight smile as she removed the needles from his and Xander's arm.

Buffy and Willow were eying him carefully, their gazes darting between him and Xander as if they couldn't decide whom to watch.

Alec flashed them his trademark grin. "He's fine," he assured them. "He'll wake up soon."

As if he'd been waiting for the words Xander started to stir and his eyes snapped open, only to close again right away when the bright light blinded him.

"Oww, lights!" he groaned.

"Xander! Are you all right? How do you feel? Does it hurt? Is there anything I can do?"

"Wounded person here Wills. Slow down."

Buffy grabbed his hand and squeezed it lightly. "Thank God you're ok Xan. We were so worried."

Xander gave them a warm smile. "Don't worry Buffster. It takes more than a vamp to take down your Xander-shaped friend. This should teach me to keep an eye on the surroundings and not only on the hot girls though."

Willow slapped him upside the head. "This is nothing to joke about Xander. You could have died!"

"Hey! As long as you can joke about it it'll be all right."

Xander turned to Alec and gave him a small, thankful nod. "Is that how it usually is?"

Alec shook his head slowly. "No, I've never experienced anything like that before."

Xander sighed deeply and took a quick look around to make sure the nurse wasn't in the room anymore. "Figures the Hellmouth would screw things around. Guess that's why I can suddenly remember everything Soldier-boy knew."

Alec raised his eyebrows. "Well, that should come in handy."

-----

Please take a minute to leave your comments. It helps a lot.

-----


	5. Chapter Four

_Disclaimer:_ Disclaimer for all of the story can be found before the Prologue. 

_A/N:_ Well, this took a while. I hope it was worth the wait. 

Many thanks to Infie, Maia and Merlin The Enchanter. Hugs to everybody who left me feedback.

Please let me know what you think.

-----

**_

Chapter Four

_**

The sound of screeching tires cut through the night as the beat up black car came to a stop besides the sign. 

"'Welcome to Sunnydale.' Well, ain't that bloody nauseating." 

The driver's door of the car opened and a black clad figure stepped out. He made his way over to the sign and proceeded to smash it to pieces. "Who the 'ell cares how many happy meals there are in this bloody 'ellhole? They'll all be dead soon enough anyway." 

A few seconds later the car took off down the street leaving a cloud of smoke and two black tire tracks on the road. 

"I'll show that pathetic excuse for a Slayer what it means to mess with William the Bloody. I'll drown the entire town in blood!" Spike had been ranting to himself all the way from LA and showed no signs of slowing down. As he drove he scanned the empty streets for something to eat, but it looked like he was the only one awake at this hour. 

If he'd stopped to think about it he might have taken it as a sign, but unfortunately Spike wasn't one to spend much time thinking. Violence was his desired cause of action. Murder and mayhem were his hobbies. The Hellmouth was where he once again would set up shop. 

Now he just had to find some incompetent fledgling to question about the current vampire ranks in Sunnydale. After all, he couldn't take over before he'd killed the current master. 

After driving around the outskirts of Sunnydale for a while he turned onto yet another street just in time to see a group of what were clearly vampires pushing some sort of carts in front of them. His face split in a hideous grin and he let out a laugh. They would do. 

So intent was he on finding his informants that it wasn't until he had already brought the car to a screeching stop besides the vampires that he took a second to examine the feeling he got from them. 

This was *not* what he'd planned. 

Absolutely not. 

As one the six vampires turned to face the black car that stood bouncing on its suspension. 

Marcel made a quick sign to one of this brothers and the vampire walked over to the car and ripped the left front door off. 

"Bloody 'ell, mate!" Spike roared. "What the 'ell do you think you're doing!" 

"Be quiet, child," Allessandro hissed. 

"Look 'ere mate. I don't care how old you are. I'm William the fucking Bloody, feared all over the world, and I want to know why the 'ell you did that!" 

Marcel walked up to the car and bent down to look at the bleached blonde vampire inside. "So you're William the Bloody, huh? Not exactly what I'd expected." 

"Sod off, bloody Frenchman." 

Marcel's eyes turned cold as he fixated the British vampire with his gaze. "Bring him with us," he instructed the others. "From what I've heard he is familiar with the Hellmouth and the various players here. I'm sure Marcus would like to have a word with him before we end his existence." 

"Now wait a soddin' minute," Spike protested as he was dragged out of the car. 

"Silence!" 

One look at the gathered vampires and Spike knew that he'd never be able to fight them all off and escape with his life. On the inside he was seething with anger but he forced himself to appear calm. He'd been in tight situations before. As long as he played along and kept an eye open he would get his chance. 

And his revenge. 

No one treated him like this and got away with it. Oh yeah, railroad spikes were lots of fun but some of the new toys the happy meals had invented were just bloody awesome. He'd make them scream for *days* before he dusted them. 

It only took a few minutes to reach the mansion where Marcus had set up his base and Spike had spent the time wondering over the carts the other vampires were pushing in front of them. He wanted to sink his fangs into one of the blood bags they had but he forced himself to ignore the bloodlust. He'd get his chance, but not if he was dead. 

When they walked up the driveway to the large mansion Spike couldn't help but feel the power radiating from the house. There were several vampires in there and at least one of them was so old it made Darla and Angelus look like fledglings. Whoever it was had to be the one to run this joint. 

The more he thought about it the clearer it became to him that as long as this group was around he'd never become the master of the city again. 

Simple solution: they had to die. 

Ok, maybe not that simple. But he'd have to get rid of them before he could put his own plans in motion. 

The vampires guided him through the house until they reached a plain looking door at the end of a hallway. 

"Sit." 

The demon inside him roared and reveled in the images of what he'd do to them later, but Spike did what he was told and took a seat. The French vampire, who he was going to tie to a wall and shower in holy water, entered the room and closed the door behind him. Spike took a moment to study the vampires around him more closely. For some reason or another they appeared to be nervous. 

Very nervous. 

"You did what!?" 

The muffled roar from the other side of the door caused more than one of his captors to flinch back and pale further. As much as a vampire really could pale. 

So, the big boss is not happy with the minions. I'm sure I can use that knowledge to my favor in some way. 

A loud crash was heard from behind the door and a few seconds later the French vampire opened it and pointed at Spike. 

"You, come with me." 

Once again Spike fought off the impulse to sneer at the older vampire and followed him into the room, which he could now see was an office, albeit without any modern equipment. 

The vampire who stood behind the desk at the end of the room looked like he'd rather be pacing furiously instead of remaining calm, but had decided that it would be better to not show his temper in front of the prisoner. 

Spike took one look at the vampire's face and knew that he'd have to play his cards carefully now or he'd never leave this room alive. 

"My son here tells me you have met the Slayer before." 

Spike hesitated for a second, forming his reply before he spoke. "Yeah, I've met the bint. What of it?" 

Ok, diplomacy wasn't really his thing. 

The old vampire fixed his yellow eyes on Spike before his features softened and he let out a roaring laugh. "You're a feisty one, youngling. So ignorant and naïve. I am Marcus, and you are going to tell me about her." 

Spike drew an unnecessary breath to calm himself down before he opened his mouth again. "And if I refuse?" 

Marcus face split into a grin. "You won't." 

Spike's eyes narrowed and Marcus' grin disappeared immediately. 

"Make no mistake, young one. You will tell me what I want to know and if I am pleased with you, you will live. Marcel, make sure tonight's debacle is not repeated." 

The French vampire bowed slightly. "Yes Father." As he turned to the door and opened it to leave Spike couldn't help but giving a parting remark. 

"Bloody useless Frenchmen," Spike muttered. 

Had Marcel been human he would never have heard the insult. Had he been human he would never have been able to pin the British vampire against the wall with a grip around his throat either. 

"Marcel!" Marcus growled. 

The vampire in question immediately let go of Spike's throat and the younger vampire slid down the wall and landed in a heap on the floor, desperately shaking his head in an attempt to clear the stars from his vision. 

Marcus sent one short look at his son and the French vampire left the room in a hurry. Then he turned to Spike. 

"That was a mistake, young one," the former Roman Centurion growled. He grabbed a handful of bleached blonde hair and lifted – only to evoke a scream from Spike as the hair was ripped from his head and the vampire remained on the floor. 

"Bloody 'ell! Not the 'air!" 

"Silence!" 

Marcus studied the fistful of hair with interest. "It looks like all that bleach is bad for your scalp," he said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "Now, talk." 

Spike swallowed another curse and decided to cut his losses for the moment. "Look 'ere, mate. I don't know much about what the bint's been up to lately but I can tell you this; the easiest way to get 'er is through 'er friends. They're a bloody useless bunch of pansies but she'll do anything to protect them." 

"I see," Marcus said slowly as he made some notes on a paper. "Anything else you would like to share?" 

When Spike remained silent the ancient vampire let out a sigh and pressed a button on the desk. "Marcel, lock our guest into the basement and see if you can think of something that would ease his tongue." 

"Now, wait a bloody minute," Spike protested as the French vampire entered, followed by two others. 

Despite the protests it wasn't long before Spike was thrown into a windowless room in the basement and the thick steel door was closed behind him. 

"Brilliant, bloody brilliant." He took a look at the room he'd been locked into and couldn't find anything that would help him open the door silently. Breaking it down was out of the question with all the vampires in the house. They'd hear what he was doing before he could get half way through the door. Beyond frustrated, he sent a kick at the innocent couch that stood along one wall of the room, and spread splinters of wood all over the room. A hint of metal became visible under the carpet that had been dislocated when the couch moved. 

Spike moved in a flash and lifted the corner of the carpet to take a closer look. A second later a grin spread over his face and he had to force back the laughter. "I knew it! The bloody wankers will pay for this." 

Careful not to leave traces that would be too obvious, he lifted the sewer cover and slipped down the hole, replacing the cover and doing his best to arrange the carpet over it. 

As soon as he'd reached the bottom he took off at a furious pace down the sewer tunnel. So those new vamps wanted the Slayer, huh? Well, she was his and he'd be damned if he let someone else get her. She was going to be his third and there was no way he'd let those wankers stop him. 

No matter how angry or determined he was it was blatantly obvious that he couldn't take them out by himself. And he was pretty sure that they'd have made their presence known to the vampire population in Sunnydale. That meant he couldn't hope to recruit enough vampires to fight them, at least not with a good enough chance for survival to make it worth the effort. The only option left was one that left a foul taste in his mouth. But what else could he do? 

Having made his decision he turned left at the next corner and climbed the ladder to get out of the sewers. He needed to find someone to feed off fast and then hide somewhere until the sun set again. He had work to do the coming night and he needed to be rested and well fed before he met with the Slayer. It wasn't something he wanted to do but he couldn't see any other options than to help the Slayer with this. Then he'd get his chance to take her out or, even better, turn her. 

True, there were powerful enemies in the neighborhood now but how was it the saying went? The enemy of my enemy is my friend? Something like that. He grinned as he spotted a lone figure, nervously walking down the sidewalk. Things were looking up. 

*****

When Rupert Giles entered the hospital most of the traces of what had happened earlier that night had been cleaned up. The bodies were removed and even though there were traces of blood left, most of that was cleaned up as well. The Watcher did a double take when he spotted two SPD officers talking with a white clad doctor. SPD working at night? That had to be a first. 

He made his way over to reception and asked the nurse where he could find Xander. A few minutes later he knocked lightly on the door and entered the hospital room without waiting for an answer. The scene that met him was not what he'd expected. 

Xander and Alec were laughing so hard they were doubled up, Alec in his chair and Xander on the bed. Willow's face had taken on a very interesting shade of red to match her hair and Buffy was fuming. Her eyes were fixed on Alec, and Giles could have sworn that he could see smoke trailing out of her ears. 

"Excuse me, children," Giles tried to attract their attention. 

"Giles," Buffy growled. "Nice to see you. I'm going home." With that she stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. 

Giles looked at the door for a second, turned to face the teens and then back to the door again. Very slowly he removed his glasses and produced a handkerchief from his pocket. "Would any of you care to inform me of what is going on?" He asked as he started to polish the glasses. 

Xander and Willow took one look at the Englishman and broke out in a new fit of giggles. Alec just rolled his eyes and got up, putting his arm around the Watcher's shoulders. 

"Well, G-man, it's like this," he said as he guided the older man through the door and out into the corridor. "Me and Xand were just telling some old stories about nurses," the X5 said with a wink to let him know what kind of stories. "And, well, I said that Buffy would look great in this nurse outfit I saw in a movie once." 

Giles cleared his throat. "That is more than enough information, thank you." He shot a withering glare at the transgenic and Alec met his glare with such a look of fake innocence that any judge would have found him guilty on the spot. 

Giles sighed and replaced his glasses on his nose. "I take it Xander is mostly all right then?" 

"He'll be fine. He should be able to leave this place as soon as we can get one of the docs to sign him out." 

"Very well. I will see to that, and you can make sure the children are ready to leave." 

"Sure." 

When Alec entered the room again the two Scoobies had managed to stop laughing and were trying to catch their breath. "Giles is looking for a doc," Alec said. "As soon as he can find one we're outta here." 

"Good, then we can get some sleep and… Faith!" Willow said. "What happened to her?" 

Alec shrugged. "Short version only, for now. They came, they saw – nothing at all, we kicked their asses." 

Willow smiled and gave him a quick hug, before blushing red again. Alec gave her a smile and a wink that caused her blush to deepen. 

Xander let out a low whistle. "Nice. You'll have to tell me about it later," he added. 

Alec nodded. "Sure. Max and I want to talk to you about something anyway. Besides, we need to find out exactly what you got from that soldier guy." 

"Yeah," Xander agreed. It would be nice if he could use some of the stuff the soldier knew. It would come as a surprise for some of the vamps. 

The door opened and Giles entered with Dr. Green. 

"Mr. Giles here has told me that you'd like to leave the hospital as soon as possible. I'd be more comfortable if you would remain here for observation for at least another 12 hours to make sure there are no complications." 

"What would I have to do to get out of here now?" Xander asked. 

The doctor sighed. Some patients just had no idea what was good for them. "We will let you go but it is against medical advice. If you sign these papers you can leave immediately." He handed a couple of papers to Xander who quickly looked them through and signed them. 

The doctor checked the signatures and shook his head slightly. "Very well, I'll find a chair for you and your friends can escort you out." 

"Thank you Dr. Green," Giles said. "We will make sure he does not strain himself for the next few days." 

The doctor nodded and left the room. Alec and Xander shared a look and rolled their eyes simultaneously. Take it easy? Yeah right. There was no point in being sick unless it was a school day. 

A few minutes later Alec rolled the wheelchair out the main entrance and as soon as the doors had closed behind them Xander was out of the chair. 

"God I hate those things!" 

Alec just rolled his eyes and parked the wheelchair outside the entrance. 

"My car is parked over here," Giles said, and started walking in the direction of the antique vehicle. 

Alec eyed the car suspiciously before turning to Willow. "Does he know that we drive on the right side of the road here?" 

"It was one of the first things he learned," she answered. "I have no idea why though. It's not like all the other cars can't drive circles around Giles' car so there's really nothing to worry about." 

Giles glared at the redhead but refused to take the bait. They'd had this discussion so many times he was used to it now. 

They embarked the car, Willow riding shotgun with Alec and Xander in the back, and after an uneventful but yet scary drive they were back at Casa del Summers. 

*****

As the four of them entered the Summers' home they were not surprised to find that Buffy had arrived before them. Considering that she was on foot, it was yet another thing pointing to the obvious: Giles needed a new car. 

Buffy was waiting for them in the living room and appeared to be a lot calmer than she'd been at the hospital. Xander and Alec let out identical sighs of relief. They weren't scared of Buffy, far from it to be honest, but they knew there were people in the house who really needed to sleep, something that would be impossible if the Slayer started screaming. 

"Mom is sleeping and Max is keeping an eye on Faith," Buffy said. "She was asleep when I got home and Max said everything was all right." 

"Excellent," Giles said. "Since everything appears to be calm at the moment I will take my leave and try to get some sleep." 

The four teens quickly said good-bye and Giles left with a cloud of smoke and strange noises accompanying him. 

Alec's gaze followed the car as long as it was within sight. When it finally disappeared he let out a low chuckle and shook his head. Xander had walked up beside him and just grunted in agreement. "I have no idea how that thing still runs," he confessed. 

"I'm surprised he uses a car like that when it's so easy to get a new one. Not even the cars where we come from were in shape that bad," Alec said. "At least not the ones that ran," he added after a second. 

"Giles is just weird like that," Willow put in her opinion before she turned to Buffy. "Um, Buffy. I should probably have asked this before Giles left but can we sleep here? It's almost morning and I'd like to get some sleep before it's time to get up again." 

Buffy just shrugged. "Sure. Alec can take the couch down here and Xander the basement, you can sleep in my room like always." 

"Or we could trade places," Alec winked. 

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right." Sure, he was yummy, but Max would kill her. Not to mention that her mom would ground her for the rest of the summer. 

"Threesome?" 

"Uhh, I'll just go to bed," Willow managed to get out before she escaped up the stairs. 

Alec raised his eyebrows and turned to Buffy who mirrored his action. "We need to work on her self-esteem." 

"Good luck." And with that parting comment Buffy followed the redhead up the stairs. 

"Buffy," Alec called after her, careful to keep his voice down to not wake anyone up. 

"Yeah?" 

"Which room is Faith in? I'm gonna check on Max." 

Buffy pointed it out for him. "And she's all right Xan, she just needs to sleep," she added before she disappeared into her bedroom and locked the door. Alec considered picking the lock and poking his head in, just to see their reaction, but decided against it when he remembered some of the weapons Buffy always seemed to have nearby. Instead he continued down the hall and knocked lightly on the door Buffy had pointed out for him. A few seconds later it opened and he found himself looking down at Max's face. 

"Hey," he said quietly. "I was just going to see if there's anything you needed or if you want to sleep some. I could take the watch for a while if you want to get an hour or so?" 

"Nah, I'm ok. I slept last night so I don't need it now. Why don't you take a few hours on the couch down there, you need it more than I do." 

Alec nodded, grateful that he'd get some sleep. "Ok, see you in the morning." 

"'night." 

Xander had already retreated to the basement when Alec came down the stairs. He did a quick sweep of the ground floor to make sure that the windows and doors were shut before he made himself comfortable on the couch. Or, as comfortable as you could be on a couch. Thankfully he'd slept in much worse places and being the transgenic he was he could fall asleep when he wanted to. A few seconds after he'd closed his eyes he was asleep. 

*****

When Joyce woke up in the morning she found Alec sleeping on the couch in the living room. Careful not to wake the sleeping transgenic she made her way to the kitchen. 

"You don't have to sneak around Joyce," Alec said. "I heard when you woke up and I'll go back to sleep in a moment." 

Startled, Joyce spun around and looked at Alec, who was still lying with his eyes closed on the couch. Shaking her head she resumed her walk to the kitchen and prepared a breakfast for herself. 

She left a note for Buffy on the kitchen table, letting her daughter know that she'd left for work and when she planned to be back. 

Alec relaxed again on the couch and was just about to allow himself to fall asleep when a sound caught his attention again. "Hey Max. How's Faith?" 

"Still sleeping," Max said quietly as she came down the stairs and into the living room. "I figured it would be better if she was alone when she woke up. Don't want her to feel like we don't trust her or like she needs a babysitter." 

Alec grunted in approval. "I told Xander we wanted to speak to him today. I think we better start the training as soon as possible and we'll want to see how much he remembers from that Halloween incident." 

"Is he healed up enough to start physical training?" 

"I think so. He said he's always healed fast and with a little transgenic boost it should go even faster. The wound wasn't that bad to begin with, even though it bled like crazy. The doctors stitched it up, so it should heal fast." 

Max sat down on the floor with her back leaning against the couch, her head close to Alec's so they could keep the conversation quiet enough to not disturb anyone else in the house. 

Alec, who still had been a little sleepy, was instantly awake when the unique scent of Max filled his nostrils. He opened his eyes to look at the female X5, who was staring off into space. He mentally groaned when he realized she had no idea how she affected him. On second thought it might actually be better like this. If she knew she'd take every opportunity to tease him about it and he'd never be able to take that when he knew she didn't feel the same way. 

"Whatcha thinking about?" 

Alec shook his head to clear it from any dangerous thoughts. Obviously she hadn't been as lost in thought as he had believed. "Uh…" he answered, shifting his gaze up to the roof, unsuccessfully fighting a guilty expression. 

Max turned her head slightly so she could see him in her peripheral vision and growled mentally. Oh… staring up into the roof, with a guilty expression on his face, in the exact direction of Buffy's bedroom where the Slayer and Willow were sleeping. Not that hard to figure out what he was thinking about. With a huff she turned her head back and resumed staring at the wall. Alec just never changes, she thought angrily. 

It didn't take long before the first signs of people waking up could be heard through the house. 

Buffy and Willow were the first to come down the stairs from the second floor, both looking equally exhausted. The two barely grunted their hellos and good mornings before they disappeared into the kitchen. 

Alec looked at their disappearing forms and then turned back to Max, raising his eyebrows. "I thought Slayers could go with less sleep than normal humans." 

Max just shrugged. The sleeping pattern of humans was not something she'd ever understood. The shark DNA the scientists at Manticore had included in the genetic cocktail she'd been created from made sure of that. When you needed as little sleep as she did it felt strange to be around others who were hardly able to function properly without eight hours every night. She had to admit, though, that in the last few years she'd come to enjoy sleep more and more. She wasn't sure why but she guessed that her body slowly adapted to her surroundings in order to blend in better. She'd spent more time living with and around normal humans since she moved to Seattle than she had in a long time before that. 

Faith was the next one to show up, looking a lot better than she had the day before. The sleep had done her good and her Slayer healing had been working overtime, trying to get her body back into shape again. She smiled briefly at Max and nodded at Alec before she too disappeared into the kitchen. 

Alec yawned and stretched like a big cat on the couch, before he sat up. Max's breath caught in her throat and she quickly averted her gaze as his movement caused interesting things to happen under his t-shirt. 

"Looks like the kitchen is the place to be," Alec said. 

The group was busy stuffing their mouths with toast and various other breakfast items when Faith broke the silence. "Umm… Where's Xan?" 

Buffy gasped and shot to her feet, leaving in a sprint to wake Xander up. 

Willow let out a small laugh at her friend's antics. "Xander can sleep for days unless you wake him up. Once when we were like ten or something he was still sleeping when I came to visit him at three in the afternoon." 

Max grinned and turned to Alec. "Sounds like someone I know." 

"Hey! I don't sleep that much." 

"Uh-huh." 

"Do not!" 

"Do too!" 

"Do not!" 

"Do too!" 

"Do too!!" 

"Do not!!!" 

"Okay, I give up," Alec sighed. "You're right." He got up from the table and put his plate away before he left the kitchen. "I'll be out in the back yard." 

Max grinned smugly at his retreating back before a strangled sound from the other side of the table caught her attention. Faith looked like she was ready to explode. Suddenly she couldn't hold back anymore and a bubbling laughter broke forth. Willow couldn't stop herself and joined the dark haired Slayer. 

Max frowned and looked questioningly at them before her mind caught up with her and she went over the argument in her head again. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, but it only served to increase the laughter from the others. "Hey!" She pushed out her chair with enough force to make it topple over and stormed out of the kitchen in pursuit of the male transgenic. 

"Alec!!" 

When Buffy got back a few seconds later she found the Wiccan and the dark Slayer on the floor, laughing so hard they could barely breathe. Buffy stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at the scene. The look on her face was enough to send Willow into a new fit of giggles. 

Xander came up the stairs shortly after Buffy and found the kitchen in pretty much the same condition as Buffy had. He just shook his head and loaded his plate with food before he took a seat, happy that Faith felt well enough to laugh. 

Buffy glanced at the pair at the table before she helped the redhead up from the floor and dragged her towards the living room. "C'mon Wills. What's the riot?" They left among renewed giggles from Willow. 

Suddenly a very awkward silence settled over the kitchen. 

Xander took a bite of his toast and chewed slowly, trying to figure out a way to start the conversation that wouldn't automatically make Faith raise her defensive walls. Another twenty seconds of uncomfortable silence later he gave up and settled for the simplest possible approach. "Hey." 

Faith didn't look up from her breakfast and for a moment Xander thought she hadn't heard him. He was just about to repeat himself when she answered, still without looking up from her food. 

"Hey." It came out as nothing more than a whisper. 

"How do you feel?" 

"Five by five." Her tone was so flat that even if he hadn't known she wasn't all right he could have guessed it. 

"Faith. Won't you even look at me?" 

"No." 

"Please." 

She raised her head just enough so she could glance quickly at him before she let her gaze fall down again. "How can you even stand to be in the same room as me anymore?" She asked flatly. 

Xander looked questioningly at her for several seconds before he spoke again. "Why wouldn't I?" 

"I almost killed you." There was more emotion in her voice this time. He could hear traces of anger even though it came out as nothing but a whisper. 

He swallowed a lump in his throat; feeling strangely reassured by that trace of fury that it would work out in the end. The real Faith was still there somewhere; he just had to bring her out. "That wasn't you," he stated, trying to put as much honesty and conviction as he could in his voice. 

That made her look at him for the first time since she'd woken up from her coma. "I was there," she spat. "I remember doing it." Her gaze fell again. 

He watched her as she trembled visibly, as if trying to shake off the memories, and he had to force himself from reaching out to touch and comfort her. It wasn't time for that yet and if he moved too fast she'd just close up completely. "That wasn't you," he repeated, more firmly this time. "You had no choice but to do what they wanted." 

"How do you know?" Anger again. "Maybe I wanted to do it all the time." 

He understood what she meant even though she didn't say it; understood her worries. What if some part of her had been capable of doing those things the whole time? If she couldn't fight it, maybe that meant some part deep down inside her wanted to do them. It was thoughts he'd had himself more than once after the incident at the zoo. 

"Do you know what happened to me at the zoo?" 

That caught her completely off-guard and she actually looked up at him with a puzzled expression on her face. "The hyena?" The unsaid 'what does that have to do with this' was obvious. 

"I remember everything that happened while I was possessed," he confessed. "I remember almost raping Buffy and being a complete ass to all my friends. It was only pure luck that I wasn't there when the others killed Principal Flutie." He sighed. "What I mean is that I remember it all but I *know* it wasn't me who did all those things. It took a long time before I got over the guilt I felt and I still feel sorry for some of the things the hyena did, even though they're not my fault." 

"I…" she started but he interrupted her before she could say anything. 

"The PTB are so much more powerful than that hyena-spirit they're not even on the same map. Whistler said you still almost broke free. It's. Not. Your. Fault." 

She glanced down again and it struck him how un-Faith-like her behavior was. He'd never expected Faith to act like anything but the tough, ass-kicking girl she'd been when she first came to Sunnydale. It made him wonder who the real Faith was. How much had the PTB already influenced her before she got to Sunnydale? Was her tough-girl act the beginning of her alienation, her being forced to drift away from the rest of the 'good guys?' When she looked up again there was more fire in her eyes and she seemed to have pulled herself together. 

The armor was up again. 

"So, boytoy. I'll give you a free ride for old times sake." 

Now the only question was if he'd be able to break through before she closed herself off completely. 

"No thanks." 

That caught her off-guard and her eyes widened in surprise for a second before she replaced it with a blank expression. Was it just wishful thinking or did he see disappointment in her eyes for that brief moment? 

"I don't know anything about your past really, but I can make some guesses. It's probably a lot worse than mine ever was and I know the others would never understand. Don't let them win, Faith. Don't continue what they started and pretend that your body is just a thing to be used or let others use. You're better than that." 

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and for a moment he was afraid he'd gone too far too fast. Their eyes met for a second and her expression softened slightly as she saw nothing but honesty in his dark brown gaze. 

Slowly he reached out and placed his hand on hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. 

"Please let me in." 

She snorted. "Thought you said you didn't want another ride." 

Xander blushed. "Not like that." He reached out with his other hand and pointed at her heart. "There." 

Faith lowered her gaze again, looking at where their hands lay entwined on the table. His thumb had started to trace small circles on the upper side of her hand and she was pretty sure it was something he did unconsciously. 

It felt good. 

Maybe she could let herself trust another man again. Something she hadn't done since she was eight and the first time her dad and his friends… 

She pushed back the memories. 

Xander wasn't like them. If there was something she knew for sure it was that he'd never hurt her intentionally. 

And she was still terrified. 

She looked up again and saw nothing but concern and… no… she wouldn't hope for that. 

"I'm sorry." She looked down again. 

It came out so softly he only caught it because he was so focused on her. So very unlike Faith. 

"Faith." 

She looked up again. 

"I won't say I forgive you because there's really nothing to forgive. It wasn't your fault." 

"I…" She had to stop to swallow the lump in her throat. What was happening to her? 

When she looked at him again there were tears in her eyes and he couldn't stand it anymore. With a quick motion he stood and rounded the table, without letting go of her hand. 

She got up from her chair and instinctively took a step back when he moved, and something inside him broke. "Faith…" 

"I'm sorry." She couldn't help it. It was a defensive reaction so old that she hadn't been able to stop herself. Not even this time when she didn't want to move away. 

He reached out with his other hand and lifted her chin in time to see a single tear roll down her left cheek. It was more than he could take and he took a slow step toward her. 

She didn't move. 

Carefully he reached out and embraced her, pulling her close to him, and Faith clung to him as if her life depended on it. 

She buried her face in his chest and, for the first time she could remember, let her protective walls fall. 

And cried. 

*****

"Alec!" 

The transgenic in question turned his head slightly to see Max storming out of the house and heading in his direction. It was another lovely day in Sunnydale. The sun was shining brightly and until he'd laid eyes on Max he hadn't seen any clouds at all. The dark ones roiling over her head didn't bode well for the future. 

God how he loved her when she was like this. 

"Max, what can I do for you this lovely morning?" 

"Shut up!" 

Alec rolled his eyes. "Awww… C'mon… something else? That's what you usually tell me to do." Ok, baiting her now probably wasn't very wise but he couldn't help himself. 

Max stopped a few inches from his outstretched legs and bent down to glare into his eyes. 

"You did that on purpose," she growled. He had to admit it was a very impressive growl. One would think that someone with her feline DNA would be more inclined to hiss instead of growl, but she pulled it off amazingly well. 

"You won the argument, Maxie," he said with wide, innocent eyes. "I have *no* idea why you're pissed now." 

"You… You *tricked* me!" 

"Oh, *that.*" He smirked. "It was so easy I couldn't resist." 

Her mouth worked for several seconds while she tried to come up with something to say. Finally she gave up and resorted to physical violence. At least that was something that always worked. 

Alec knew exactly when she was going to attack. All the signs were there and as usual she let her anger take over and forgot everything about training and techniques. He easily caught her hands when she dove for his throat and pulled her with him as he rolled to the left. In less than a second he had her pinned to the ground beneath him again. 

Two seconds later he had already begun to regret his decision. The way she writhed and squirmed beneath him was making it difficult to stay focused, but releasing her would only result in bruises. Alec trapped her arms above her head and used his full body weight to keep her from moving around as much. It was the normal way to restrain someone, don't give them any leverage to get free. 

Unfortunately it also had the added side effect of making him feel every curve of the soft body pinned beneath him. 

Alec swallowed. 

It took a full five seconds before he even noticed that she'd stopped trying to break free and lay motionless beneath him. Her mouth was slightly open and she was breathing heavily, something that only made it increasingly clear exactly what he was pressed up against. 

Max's brain had disconnected completely. All thoughts of escaping or inflicting bodily harm on her annoying companion had vanished without a trace. Her eyes had found something to lock on. 

Lips. 

Beautiful, tempting and oh so perfect lips. 

Alec looked into her eyes, eyes that were still clouded, but no longer with anger. Max's tongue darted out to moisten her lips and Alec lost the capability of coherent thoughts. 

He kissed her. 

And she kissed him back. 

It was all he'd ever dreamed about. It was dueling tongues and intoxicating tastes. It was sweet and gentle and it was a struggle for dominance. He let go of her arms and used his hands to hold her head instead, running one hand through her dark hair until he could swear he heard her purr. 

Neither of them could tell for how long it went on but finally they had to break apart for some much needed air. Her eyes were closed and he stared down in wonder at the perfection that was Max. 

Max came back to her senses slowly, her brain finally catching up with what had happened. Her eyes snapped open to find Alec looking back at her with an expression of wonder on his face. 

She had just kissed Alec. 

She had just kissed Alec and it had been good. 

Oh so good. 

But it was *Alec.* 

So naturally she panicked and did what she usually did when she couldn't deal with something. She resorted to physical violence. 

*SMACK* 

"What the hell were you doing!?!" 

Alec rolled a full 360 degrees from the force of the slap and his left hand automatically came up to his left cheek, trying to soothe the pain. 

"Wha…" 

"What the hell were you doing thinking you could just do… do… that!?" 

Max stormed off in a huff, leaving a completely bewildered Alec on the lawn. 

Ok, what had just happened? Rubbing his flaming cheek he climbed to his feet and debated whether to go after her or let her cool down for a while. The latter seemed to be the best choice for the moment. 

He sighed. 

It couldn't be PMS. Heck, transgenic females didn't even have cycles like normal humans. Shaking his head to try to clear it from the ringing, he decided that it was just Max being Max. 

As usual. 

Oh well, he'd give her some time to calm down and see what happened. It was probably best to try to forget it ever happened. He was sure Max would do her best to ignore it. 

Right… Like he could ever do that. 

A quick glance at his watch confirmed that it was almost time for their scheduled training session. He'd have to deal with this later when he had some distance from it. 

*****

As soon as Alec came down the stairs to the basement and took in the scene in front of him he felt both worried and relieved. Xander and Faith were talking quietly in one corner and a quick look on their faces was enough to see that they'd both been crying. Hopefully they'd worked some things out. However, a second look told him that they would not be doing any training within the next few hours. They were far from focused enough. Alec sighed. He couldn't really blame them, could he? They were civilians and not used to pushing their emotions aside to achieve the objective. They were still good people though and he understood them. It would still have been nice to work with professionals again, he thought. 

One look at Max made him reconsider that. 

She was fuming. Still. 

The male transgenic let out a sigh and closed his eyes, silently counting to ten. Max was a professional, or at least she should be, and she still couldn't stay calm and focused. 

He let his gaze wander over the rest of the room and found Willow in one corner. The redhead had taken a seat as far away as possible from Xander and Faith to give them some privacy, and she was nervously eying the pacing Max. He couldn't really blame her either. When Max was in this mood it was best to stay out of the way unless you had accelerated healing. 

When Buffy came bouncing down the stairs, dressed for workout in shorts and a tank top, he considered escaping from the house. He'd managed to forget that Max was going to spar with the Slayer and was expecting to beat her as 'easy' as he'd done. 

He was going to die. 

Max would kill him and he'd let her. How warped was that? 

Running away felt like a better and better choice the more he thought about it. 

There was only one problem. 

The only thing Max had been better than him at back at Manticore was Escape and Evade. He was more of a hands-on guy. She'd find him no matter what he did and the only difference would be that he'd die tired. 

*****

Max was pacing furiously on the open area they'd cleared for training. She was seriously pissed off and the worst thing was that she wasn't sure exactly why she was pissed. 

And that only made it worse. 

She'd felt Alec's eyes on her when he'd entered and she'd refused to acknowledge him. She knew that if she were to look at him she'd either beat the crap out of him or tear his clothes off. She wasn't sure what scared her the most, the fact that she was actually considering the second option or that it felt more and more appealing the more she thought about it. She closed her eyes and sighed. 

She had to get out of here. 

Naturally it was at that moment Buffy chose to come bouncing down the stairs. Max had a sudden flash of seeing the Slayer dressed up like a giant bunny with flapping ears and everything. She choked back a giggle. 

Oh well, some violence would take her mind away from things she shouldn't even be considering. She always felt better after she'd kicked someone's ass. 

"Hey, you ready?" 

Buffy did a few quick stretches and nodded. "Yup, let's go." 

Alec smirked as he watched the fight from where he was leaning against a wall. There were two possible outcomes of this. Either it would loosen Max up a bit and she wouldn't be such a pain to deal with, or she'd kill him. 

The two started out slowly, testing each other's defenses while trying to not give the other any openings. Alec could see that Buffy was being more careful than she'd been when they fought, most likely expecting Max to be as good as him or even better. After all, the female X5 had been 'kicking his ass' for a year now. 

He kept one eye on the fight where Buffy had just blocked a series of kicks and punches from Max, and glanced over at the second Slayer and Xander. They were both watching the fight with interest and Alec suddenly remembered that this was the first time Faith had seen either of them fight. 

A muffled 'Oooff' pulled his full attention back to the fight. Buffy had just landed a punch, managing to get Max slightly off-balance and had then swept the transgenic's legs out from under her. Max landed on her back and the air whooshed out of her lungs. Max skipped back to her feet and did a quick back flip to put some distance between herself and Buffy. 

The Slayer was grinning and obviously enjoying herself. "First point to me." 

Max eyes narrowed and she attacked again. Arms and legs were a blur as the two fought with a speed that no normal human could ever hope to match. Buffy was on the defensive now, doing her best to block all the attacks Max sent her way. A few got through and left her with aching bruises, but so did some of her counterattacks. It was apparent that they were more closely matched than she'd thought at the beginning and, what was even better; she could see that Max was losing her patience. 

Buffy slowly backed away from Max as she continued to fight defensively, watching as the transgenic became more and more frustrated. It was only a matter of time before she'd get the opening she needed. 

Alec could see the same from where he was watching. All the signs were there and he was actually surprised that Max had lasted as long as she had before she lost her temper and with that her focus. 

When the mistake came it was over so quickly that Xander almost missed it. Max put too much force behind a punch and when Buffy dodged it her balance was way off. The Slayer took advantage right away and grabbed the transgenic's arm, twisting her body and sending Max flying over her head. The X5 twisted in the air and turned the landing into a roll, coming up on her feet and facing her opponent – who had followed her faster than she'd expected and already anticipated the move. Buffy's foot hit Max in the stomach and the air whooshed out of her lungs for the second time as she fell to the floor. 

"Yes!" The blonde Slayer called out as she did a little victory dance. "Did you see that Faith?" She asked, bubbling with excitement. 

Faith gave her a thumbs-up. "Nice going B. Looks like you've been taking lessons from G," she smirked. 

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" 

"Well, for once you weren't the first one to lose your temper." 

"Shut up!" 

Willow didn't manage to stifle her giggle and was soon met with a Slayer death-glare. "Don't you start!" 

Alec and Xander exchanged an amused look and the transgenic raised his eyebrows. "Well… she did keep her temper twenty seconds longer than Maxie did." 

"Fine, be that way," Buffy muttered as she stormed up the stairs. 

Alec cast a worried look after her and turned to Xander. Willow spoke up before he got a chance to open his mouth. "She'll be ok. Don't worry," she said with a small smile as she followed her friend up the stairs. 

Alec allowed himself a small sigh of relief. It wasn't easy to know how someone would react to some teasing before it happened. Buffy seemed to be one for pouting but as long as she didn't let it get to her head he wouldn't worry. She'd find a way to get even with him sooner or later. 

Or at least she'd try, he thought with a grin. 

Suddenly he froze mid-motion and the grin vanished without a trace. 

"You!" 

Oh shit! 

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Xander and Faith escape up the stairs but his mind dismissed them immediately as he laid his eyes on Max. 

She was standing with her hands on her hips, eyes narrowed and a dangerous look on her face. 

She was beautiful. 

"Me?" Alec tried. "I didn't do anything." 

Max's mouth worked for a few seconds as she tried to come up with something, anything to say. Suddenly the murderous look disappeared and she looked at him with a bewildered expression on her face. "Why?" 

Alec did a double take, his calm façade slipping as her reaction caught him with surprise. "Why what?" He asked slowly. 

"Why did you let me win every time we fought?" 

"You're not angry?" 

Her eyes narrowed dangerously again. "I didn't say that." 

Alec let out a sigh of relief. She was still Max. 

Oh-kay, time for the truth. "You needed to win more than I did." 

Max jaw dropped. "What?" 

Alec sighed. "You needed reassurance. I knew what I could do and was confident in my abilities." 

"What? That's not it at all," Max protested. 

Alec took a slow step toward her and when she didn't look like she'd attack he took another. "Max, you've lived most of your life around regular humans. You're used to being stronger and faster and able to kick everybody's ass. Then you let us all out and all of a sudden there's a whole lotta people running around who have the same abilities as you. You needed to feel like you still were in control and I didn't." He carefully placed a hand on her shoulder and met her eyes. "So I helped." 

Max mind was spinning uncontrolled. He'd let her win all those times and taken all those bruises only to make her feel better? This wasn't happening. It just wasn't happening. This was Alec for crying out loud! He wasn't supposed to do things like that! 

"But how…?" She trailed off. 

Alec smirked, suddenly looking like nothing but his old arrogant self. "C'mon Maxie. I know you fought Brin and lost." 

"How d'ya…" 

"I read the contact report," Alec waved the question off. "Max, Brin was back at Manticore for a few months after being on the run for ten years. I was involved with training her, getting her back into shape after all that time. She had a couple of months of hard training when you faced her." He took a deep breath. "I've got ten years of training on her, trust me when I say that they didn't pick me to train her just for her to throw my ass around," he finished with a smirk. 

"What… how… why…" 

Alec tried his best not to laugh at the expression on her face. Now wasn't the time even if her reaction was hilarious. Carefully he pulled her closer and embraced her, telling himself that he only did it to minimize the chances of her hitting him. He didn't fool himself for a second. "Besides, I never wanted to hurt you when we fought." 

Max was trying her hardest to figure him out. Trying to understand why he'd done it and what she'd do about it. She had a hard time trying as the hand that was slowly rubbing up and down her spine made thinking very hard. Unconsciously she rubbed her cheek against his muscular chest. 

Alec swallowed. If she kept that up he'd lose all control and now really wasn't the time for that. He let her go, bringing his hands up to clasp her shoulders and locking his eyes with hers. Her eyes didn't give a clue to as what she was thinking. Or rather, they gave so many different contradicting clues that he couldn't figure it out. "If you want to we can work on your training," Alec said carefully. "It shouldn't take too long to get some good results." 

Max managed to nod; she didn't trust her mouth at the moment. 

Alec let out a mental sigh of relief. She hadn't hit him and she'd agreed to start training with him. He'd have to do something about that stunned look on her face though. "First you need to learn how to not lose your temper while fighting," he smirked and was glad to see the old Max returning as she glared at him. 

He let go of her shoulders and held out a hand to her. "C'mon, lets go check what the locals are doing." 

They walked together up the stairs from the basement, Max wondering why they were suddenly holding hands and why it felt right doing it. 

*****

It was evening in London and the rain was pouring down from heavy, dark clouds. Combined with the darkness of the hallway it was somewhat fitting for the situation, Stuart MacIntyre thought as he studied the richly decorated walls. He was *not* looking forward to this debriefing. It, of course, wasn't the first time he'd been called in to leave a report to the High Council, but it was the first time he'd have to report a failure. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't like it. What made matters even worse was that he had *no* idea why the mission had turned into such a total failure. Two Goddamn *teenagers* had taken out his whole team without breaking a sweat. 

It just wasn't supposed to happen. 

The two guards motioned for him to enter and opened the heavy, decorated wooden doors to the High Council Chamber. It was time. 

"You stand before the High Council of Watchers," a voice called out from somewhere behind and to the left of him. Stuart knew what was expected of him and bowed to one knee, showing his respect. It was what he had to do, and something he did out of necessity, not out of respect. Not surprisingly it was Travers who was the first one to speak up, and he sounded pissed. 

"Would you please explain the debacle that took place in Sunnydale." It wasn't a request even if it was worded as one and everybody present knew that. 

MacIntyre took a deep breath and launched into an explanation of what had happened. 

Ten minutes later he was still standing in the middle of the room under the scrutinizing gazes of nine pair of eyes. 

It seemed like Travers was the one that had been elected to speak for the nine of them, as he once again was the one to address the uncomfortable soldier. It wasn't that much of a surprise really; Travers was after all the one who'd ordered the mission. 

"You are telling us that two unknown teenagers disabled your entire team and after throwing you out of Sunnydale, warned you not to return to the location again?" 

"That is correct, sir." 

"And the only reason you even know who your attackers are is that they allowed one of your men to see them?" 

"Yes sir." 

"They threatened to kill you if you ever returned?" 

Stuart almost sighed in annoyance. This was what he hated the most with working for civilians; it took ages for them to even understand the most basic parts of what he reported. "Yes sir, his exact words were: 'The only reason you're alive is because we didn't want to kill you. This time you all leave Sunnydale. Next time half of you don't.'" 

There was a moment of silence before someone spoke again, and this time it wasn't Travers. "Is your opinion that they would follow up on this threat?" The speaker was a thin, gray haired man who sat at the far right of the group from MacIntyre's position. 

Stuart took a second to think the situation over before he answered. That voice in the van had been deadly serious and Duncan was still jumpy from his meeting with the two teenagers. "Yes sir. They kept some of our equipment so even if they didn't have access to firearms before they do now. It was clear that they were dangerous even unarmed and I don't think going against them when they're armed would be a good idea." 

"Very well," the man said. "You may leave." 

MacIntyre bowed and left the room quickly. He knew when he wasn't wanted and he had no intention to stick around to find out if they wanted to send his team back to Sunnydale. He wasn't suicidal. 

In the Council's Chamber there was a minute of silence while the High Council members pondered the situation. Travers was the first one to speak again, taking the offensive in order to try to draw the attention away from the fact that it had been he who ordered the failed mission. "It is clear that Slayer Summers and Slayer Williams have gone against the will of the Council. They have to be punished." 

By the Council's rules going against the Council was the worst crime a Slayer could commit. It was somewhat significant for the Council that no one on the High Council even thought twice about the fact that disobedience was considered worse than killing a human being. 

"What are our choices?" 

Travers took a deep breath and spoke again. "We could call the Order," he suggested. "We have used them before in sensitive situations." If he couldn't count on his own incompetent people he had to rely on outside help. 

The High Council took a few minutes to ponder the suggestion in silence. Using the Order of Taeraka was not something that felt right to several of the members. They were after all a mostly demonic assassination order and thus made up of the very beings the Council so valiantly fought. But at the same time they needed full control over the Slayer or their positions would be threatened. In the end the vote was unanimous and the High Council concluded their session. 

Travers was the first one to leave, hurrying through the hallways to his office, eager to reach his phone. He would get his wish and the Slayer Bitches would learn their lesson and get what they deserved. And Giles would go down with them. 

He dialed a number from memory, something that would have made the other members of the High Council very uneasy had they known. It wasn't the first time he'd used the Order and most of the times it was not sanctioned by the Council. 

"Yes," a voice hissed from the other end of the line. 

Travers suppressed a shiver. Dealing with demons always made him nervous. "This is High Councilman Travers," he said, doing his best to sound intimidating and powerful. 

"What can we do for the Watcher's Council?" the voice asked with a hint of amusement. 

Travers either ignored it or missed it completely as he continued in the same voice. "We have a contract for you." 

The voice was quiet for a moment. "I see. What is it that we can help you with?" 

"We need some people removed. You know of several of them already." 

"The Slayers?" 

"Yes," Travers confirmed. "The two Slayers, the former Watcher Rupert Giles and two unknown teenagers who appear to be friends of Slayers Summers and Williams." 

It took several minutes before the voice responded and Travers was almost afraid that the connection had been broken. "Two Slayers, a Watcher and two unknown teenagers?" 

"Yes." 

"May I ask why you don't take matters into your own hands? The Council has never been averse to it before." 

"That is none of your business," Travers snapped. 

A chuckling laughter was the response that came from the hissing voice. "So it has nothing to do with the way your team was kicked out of Sunnydale?" 

"Wha-" Travers started before he caught himself, silently berating himself for letting his self-control slip. "Do you accept the contract or not?" he snapped, no longer able to keep the anger from his voice. 

"We will require double the normal payment." 

Travers closed his eyes. It was expensive but in the end it would be worth it. Those traitors had to die. "You will have it." 

"Excellent. The contract will be fulfilled within 72 hours," the voice hissed before hanging up the phone. 

Travers stared at the suddenly quiet phone in silence for a moment before slamming it down on the table. One day, he promised himself. One day he'd destroy the Order as well and then they'd see who got the last laugh. 

*****

In a big house at the outskirts of Sunnydale a cell phone buzzed, the call signal muted and the vibration the only indication of the incoming call. 

"Hello," a man answered with a yawn. 

"We have a job for you," a voice hissed. 

"One moment," the male voice mumbled sleepily as he left the room and found a secluded spot in the house. "I'm listening." 

"The two Slayers, the Watcher and two unknown teenagers. You have 71 hours. Double the normal payment." The soft click from the phone told him that the one at the other end had hung up. 

Closing his eyes Marcel let out a low groan. Why? Why now of all times? His Master wanted the Slayers alive for the ritual and his employers wanted them dead. 71 hours, he thought. If he could convince Marcus to move within that time everything would work out well. If not, well, then his unlife was forfeit. With some luck he could pull this off and Marcus would never know that his loyalty was divided. Better start planning how to take them out and escape though. He was far more afraid of the Order than Marcus. The Roman was only one person – well, vampire – after all. 

*****

Max was buzzing around like a kid on a sugar rush and Alec had a hard time keeping up with her. 

"Look at this Alec!" He heard her call out from somewhere behind him. How she'd got there without him noticing he had no idea. He spun around and found her admiring a mannequin wearing a pair of tight pants and a low-cut top. It'd look good on her, he decided. 

He could hear Buffy and Willow giggle as they finally caught up with the female transgenic. "You'll fit in nice here," Buffy said with a laugh. 

Willow nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no question about it." 

Max looked around and her eyes lit up as she spotted something at the other end of the store. Buffy grabbed her arm before she could take off again. "Max, we need to actually buy some stuff before they close the Mall." 

Max glared briefly at the Slayer before reluctantly agreeing. She glanced over at Alec who was barely holding back his laughter. He'd picked up everything he'd need in the first hour of their shopping trip and had been watching Max for the past three hours. It was amazing how fast she'd adapted to the lifestyle of the local teenage girls. Shopping seemed to be the thing to do. 

Alec decided to take a break for a while and just stand back and enjoy the show. Buffy, with Willow as a hesitant helper, was trying to guide Max through the stores and teach her the latest fashion trends. Max was just overwhelmed by the sheer number of different pieces of clothing available. 

The male transgenic let out a sigh of relief as they finally left the Mall. Five hours to buy some clothes. At least they had what they needed now and didn't have to run around in camouflage all day long. He couldn't wait to get back to the house and change out of the clothes he'd borrowed from Xander. This shirt was… well… it was hard to describe. He'd be glad when he was out of it. 

As they waited for Joyce to come and pick them up after work Alec couldn't help but casting quick glances at Max. They hadn't really talked after what happened in the morning as they – well, at least she – had been too busy with the shopping. What made him wonder though was that she hadn't hit him yet. Not even once during the whole afternoon. And he'd be damned if he could figure out why. It had been her favorite way to pass time for so long that he didn't know how to handle her when she was acting so differently. Maybe he shouldn't have been so open with her, he sighed. 

Max, in turn, did her best to ignore Alec. She had to figure out how to deal with everything before she could confront him again. The kiss and the revelation he'd made earlier in the morning had thrown her way off balance and her own reaction hadn't helped at all. 

A small voice in her head was telling her that she liked him and that's why she reacted like she did. Another louder voice was screaming that she couldn't like him – he was Alec! 

That wasn't *that* unusual if she was to be perfectly honest with herself, it had been going on for a while. If it had only been those two voices she could have ignored them as usual and let the second, louder one, decide for her. 

It was the third voice that caused the problems. 

So what if he's Alec, it said. Why should that be a reason not to like him? 

And for the life of her she couldn't find a satisfactory answer to that question. 

She needed to think to figure this out but she couldn't do that while he was this close. He was way too distracting. 

*****

"You need a new wardrobe," Alec grumbled as he pulled off Xander's shirt as soon as he got into the house. 

"Hey!" Xander said, clearly offended. What was wrong with his shirts? 

"Hate to break it to you boytoy but he's right." 

Xander whipped his head around and looked at Faith, then Alec and back to the Slayer again. "You're teaming up against me," he mock whined. 

Faith smirked. "It's for a good cause." 

There was a *thump* from the open door and the three of them spun around to see Max standing in the door with her eyes wide open, parcels laying spread out on the floor at her feet. It took a second before she snapped out of her self-induced haze and hurriedly picked up the parcels, mumbling an excuse about tripping over the doorstep. There was no way she was going to admit that she'd been so distracted by Alec's naked, muscled back that she'd dropped everything she was carrying. 

She needed to get away from him and think. 

Right now. 

The oblivious male exchanged a look with the Slayers and their friends and shrugged his shoulders as Max fled up the stairs. How the hell should he know what was going on in that girl's head? 

*****

After an excellent dinner, courtesy of Joyce, the gang gathered in the living room. Giles had come over for dinner and immediately took charge of the meeting. He cleared his throat in order to get everybody's attention. 

"What do we know about the situation we are currently in?" 

"Nothing," Xander supplied helpfully from the couch. 

"Well, thank you for that excellent answer," Giles muttered. 

"Um, Giles. He's actually right," Willow piped in. 

"Hey!" Xander protested. "What's so unusual with that?" 

"Nothing," Willow answered quickly. "I just mean that he's got no reason to say that this time…" she trailed off before she realized what she'd said and blushed a little. "Sorry." 

Xander smiled at his childhood friend. He couldn't stay mad at her even if he wanted to. And right now things were going too good for him to want to be angry, he thought as he glanced at Faith who was sitting beside him on the couch. 

"So we have no information at all?" Giles tried to bring the meeting back in order. 

"Nope," the blonde Slayer answered cheerfully. 

Giles sighed. 

"Does anyone of you have any ideas as to where we can find out what is happening? I am afraid that I am at a loss as for how to approach this problem. There is after all no prophecy that applies to the situation and I very much doubt that anything is written down about these vampires." 

The question was met by silence from the entire group. Finally Xander was the one to answer. "How about Willy's?" 

The group turned as one to Buffy, the original Slayerettes to get an answer and the transgenics to find out what Willy's was. "It's a demon bar," the blonde explained. "Sort of a hangout for Vamps and other demons who wants to buy blood or whatever else they eat." 

The two X5s shared a glance. The perfect place to gather intel. 

"Okay," Buffy said cheerfully. "I go over to Willy's and beat some information out of him. Are we going to patrol as well?" 

Giles pondered the question for a moment. "I believe it is better if we try to ascertain exactly what we are facing before we resume patrolling. The activity of the general vampire population is relatively low in the summer so the town should be quite safe even if you do not patrol tonight. I do not want you to be caught out in the open by a superior force simply because we did not know what we were facing." 

There were nods from all of the present, even if Xander looked like he wanted to complain about the canceled patrol. 

Alec and Max shared another look and got up from the chairs they'd been sitting on. "Mind if we tag along?" 

"No, why?" Buffy asked. 

Alec shrugged. "You'll have some backup if something comes up and we'll get a chance to familiarize ourselves with the town and the demon hangout." 

"Yeah, and I want to beat something up," Max added, gaining an odd look from Joyce. 

*****

The hinges creaked slightly as the heavy steel door was opened and Marcel and Allessandro stepped into the room. 

They froze on the spot. 

There was no bleached blond badass-wannabe vampire in the room. 

There should have been one. 

It took only a few seconds to notice the slightly out of place carpet and the sewer entrance hidden under it. Allessandro growled low in his throat as he realized that their prisoner was gone. Marcel cast a thoughtful look at his little brother. 

Maybe this could be turned to his advantage. 

Marcus was *not* happy when he received the news. In fact it had been many decades since Marcel had seen him this angry. 

"Whose bright idea was it to lock him up in a room where he could just walk out as he saw fit?" Marcus growled. 

"Juan prepared the house for our arrival, Father. He was the one to chose that room as prison cell." 

Marcus seethed silently. The loss of the British vampire wasn't as serious as he might have let on, but it annoyed him to no end that things weren't going according to the plan. First the raid on the hospital had been a failure and now this. "Very well. We need to gather more information about our enemies. Send out a few scouts tonight." 

"Yes, Father." Marcel bowed his head and left the room quickly. Now he just had to convince his siblings that their Father was being overly cautious and that they should strike sooner than Marcus had planned. 

Else he'd be a dead vampire. 

*****

"So this is a demon bar?" Alec asked as they stepped over the threshold. "I've seen human bars in worse condition." 

"Yeah," Max agreed. "But I don't think I've ever seen one with this kind of patrons," she added as she let her eyes sweep over the dark interior of the bar. 

Alec shrugged. "Adds to the atmosphere." 

Their commentary of the bar and its guests was interrupted by a loud groan from behind the bar counter. "Not you again," Willy complained as he saw the blonde Slayer enter with two other teenagers in tow. 

"Hi Willy," Buffy said cheerfully. "So do we do this the easy way or the hard way?" 

"Easy or hard?" Max queried, raising her eyebrows. 

"Without or with me beating him up." 

"Ah. What's the fun with the easy way?" 

"It's not fun at all," Buffy whined. "But it is faster," she added reluctantly. 

"So you're Willy?" Alec asked the nervous bartender. 

"Uh.. yeah." 

The male transgenic looked him over quickly. "I can see why you run a demon bar instead of a normal one." 

"Hey!" 

"What are you bloodbags doing here!" one of the guests, a vampire, snarled. 

Willy ducked behind the bar and carefully peeked up over the top of it. 

Buffy rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Here we go again." 

The vampire in question had obviously had a little too much alcohol with his blood and was more than a little tipsy. He wasn't that impressive to begin with, standing maybe 5 foot 5 with a rather scrawny build. He growled deep down in his throat as he slowly advanced toward the three walking bloodbags. 

Buffy gave him a quick look and turned to Alec. "You wanna?" 

Alec smirked. "Why not." He pulled out a stake from a pocket and threw it at the vampire, easily dusting the bloodsucker. 

"They never learn," Buffy mock sighed as she turned back to Willy. "So, new group of vampires moved in recently. What can you tell me?" 

"Uh, nothing," Willy tried. 

Buffy's eyes lit up. "You sure?" she asked, cracking her knuckles. 

"Wait, wait, wait," the bartender stammered. "Maybe I know something." 

Buffy pouted. "I never get to have any fun." 

Max was watching the scene with amusement. It reminded her of many of the times she'd been trying to gather information from the criminals back in Seattle. 

"I don't know much," Willy said nervously. "There's talk about a new Master and that he scared the shit out of Anthony when he first got here. I don't know much more than that, I swear!" 

Buffy turned slightly to glance at Max and raised her eyebrows. "So whaddaya think? He telling the truth?" 

Max made a big show of pondering the question. "I don't know," she drawled, eying the terrified bartender. "Maybe we should beat him up a little just to be sure?" 

"Maybe," Buffy said thoughtfully. "What do you think Alec?" 

"I swear I don't know anything!" Willy pleaded. 

"Hey Willy you bloody wanker! Gimme a Vodka and Blood," a voice suddenly called from the doorway. "Make it a double." 

The Slayer and the two transgenics spun around to face the newcomer and some of the demons and vampires, recognizing the new voice, hurried to escape out the back door. 

"Spike!" Buffy spat, whipping out a stake and advancing on the bleached blond vampire. 

"Bloody 'ell!" Spike snarled, bringing up his hands in a defensive position. "Slayer," he acknowledged. 

"Oohh I'm going to enjoy this," Buffy growled as she closed in on the vampire with Max and Alec following her. The two transgenics had automatically taken up positions to cover her back as the Slayer appeared to be oblivious to anything but the vampire in front of her. 

Spike, of course, noticed that and all plans of making a play for the Slayer right away were dismissed. Had she been alone he could have tried and then got the hell out of town, but not when she had backup. He didn't recognize her two companions but if they were here with her he had to assume they knew about the 'night life' and how to defend themselves against it. 

"Wait a minute Slayer," the vampire growled. "I've got some info you need to know." 

Buffy hesitated for a second and then resumed her advance, eyes narrowing dangerously. "Doesn't matter, you're dust." 

Spike snorted. "Like you could take me even if you wanted." He backed out the door with Buffy and the X5s following him. The collective breath of relief from the patrons of the bar could be heard all the way out on the street. "There's a new gang of vamps in town and they're after you and your bloody friends," Spike tried. How the hell was he going to use her to take out the others if she wouldn't even listen to him? Bloody stupid blonde bitch. 

That was enough to halt the Slayer's advance. "Talk," she ordered. "Fast." 

"Damnit Slayer," Spike growled. "I'm not your enemy." Maybe he could persuade her not to attack him. If he could convince her that he could be helpful if she let him stick around he could plan out his revenge in a proper manner. 

"Rii-ight," Buffy drawled. "You suddenly turned vegetarian?" 

"Look 'ere. I can buy my blood from the wanker," he gestured toward the bar, "and I'll tell you when something big 'appens around 'ere if you leave me alone." 

Buffy hesitated. She knew she couldn't trust Spike but at the same time it was a great opportunity to get some good info about what was going on in the demon community. "What do you know?" 

The two transgenics shared a glance. Having informants in the enemy camp was a good way of finding out what the enemy was doing. But they both had a feeling that it wouldn't work in this particular case. Humans were driven by their desires. You could offer them money or promises of power and fame, but that wouldn't work with demons. They didn't really care for such things. Well… They weren't averse to fame, which they usually got from killing lots of people with the Slayer on top of the list. And that's what made this a bad deal. 

"There's a new Master vamp in town," Spike started. "Some south-European wanker with lots of others working for him. I met a few Frenchmen and some other sods. They're all bloody old and annoying." 

"Where are they?" 

Spike hesitated for a second. He couldn't tell them exactly where even if he wanted to. He hadn't seen the name of the street or the number of the house they'd taken him to, and he wasn't familiar with the outskirts of Sunnydale. And he didn't want to make it too easy for the white-hats. "I don't know exactly where," he said slowly. "But it's in the outskirts of town. Some big old house with sewer access in the basement," the last part was said with a smug grin. Bet the sodding Frenchman was pissed when he found out I was gone. 

"Anything else," Alec asked. 

Spike focused his eyes on the guy who spoke while still keeping the Slayer in sight. He was well built and stood in a stance that on first sight looked relaxed, but there was something about him that made the vampire uneasy. It was the eyes, Spike decided. They were cold and calculating and looked like they'd seen much more than they should have. He'd have to find out who this guy was before he could make any plans – and the girl he added as an afterthought. 

"They were asking 'bout blondie and the other one. Wanted to know 'bout their friends and everything." 

"And what did you tell them?" 

"Look mate, I wanted to survive. I told 'em what they wanted to know." 

Max's eyes narrowed dangerously as she glared at the vampire. "What exactly did you tell them?" 

Spike shifted his focus again, trying to keep both the Slayer and the guy in sight at the same time as he focused on the girl. It was giving him a headache. The brunette girl was glaring at him and he let his eyes wander appreciatively over her body. Nice, he decided. Very nice. Then he met her eyes and recognized the same look as in the guy's eyes. He definitely had to watch out for those two. "That the best way to get 'em was through their friends." 

"What?" Buffy growled. "You-" 

"Look, Slayer. I don't even think they know 'bout these two," Spike interrupted, gesturing at Max and Alec. "I didn't tell 'em anything they couldn't 'ave figured out for themselves." 

"Let's dust him and get going," Alec suggested. "I don't think he can tell us anything else." Max nodded her agreement. 

"I can find out more," Spike hurried to assure them. 

Buffy glared at the vampire for a second. "If I find out you've eaten anyone you're dead. Got it?" If they could get Spike to keep an eye out on the local vampires for them it would be a lot easier for her to kill them later on. 

"Yeah, sure," Spike grumbled. 

"This is a bad idea," the two transgenics said at the same time. The idea with informants wasn't bad; it just wouldn't work in this case. 

"We can use him," Buffy argued. "And if he does anything bad we dust him." 

"I'll be a good little vamp," Spike reassured her. Oh yeah, he'd be very good. No eating in Sunnydale when it was just as easy to do it in the next town. He'd have to get a new car though. Just after sunset he'd gone back to where he left it last night and found it gone. It wasn't much of a surprise as it had been left with the driver's door ripped off and the keys in the ignition. It still pissed him off though. He'd liked that car. 

"Go," Buffy said. "And remember what I said. One step wrong and you're dust." 

The two transgenics shared a glance. They both had a feeling that this decision would come back and bite them in the ass later on. 

The Slayer watched as the vampire disappeared in the shadows before she turned to her companions. "Let's go back." 

The three of them had been walking in silence for some time and they were approaching the Summers' home when Alec spotted something about a block away. It was a black clad figure, no make that two figures, who were making their way slowly down the streets. Focusing his eyes on them he tried to make out any details but couldn't see much. They appeared to be carrying something black. The soldier in him automatically assumed a weapon of some kind. He only had them in sight for a few seconds before they disappeared behind some bushes. Still, that was something worth checking out. If there were other players around here he wanted to know who they were. 

-----

No, there will be no B/S (BullShit). Buffy agreed to let Spike go because she is simply too naïve and thinks she can use him. She doesn't trust him fully, like him or love him and I refuse to turn her into a necrophiliac.

Please leave me a review and let me know what you think.

-----


End file.
